Best cyclocross bike under £1000 and other CX chat

Been looking at the Giants today, they are fookin great value compared with say a Spesh Crux. I'm assuming the wheels aren't great, but the groupsets are vastly superior. Gonna do some sums, test ride, may get one on 0%.

I've got one and the stock wheels are very, very heavy. They were also very susceptible to pinch flats, way more than any other wheel I've had. They are tubeless ready though, so you can convert them and eliminate pinch flats.

Did you go for the slr1 or 2?

Not sure the Canyon has rack mounts either.

Go bikepacking! help keep those kind of bike from feeling sluggish.

Mine's the 2014 model, so the SLR 2 with 105 groupset.

What @edscoble said, no need for racks, unless you take shit loads of gear.
Cheers @andyp, roll on the weekend, test rides here we come.

Thinking about getting a CX bike for winter duties and general mucking around, what would people's suggestions be?
Budget up to £1500, definitely would like hydraulic discs, groupset I'm not too fussed about but if it was Shimano that'd help as all my tools are that already.
The Cannondale Caadx Ultegra took my eye, seems like a good deal. Any others I should be looking at?
I'm also well up for whacky paint jobs if that helps things!

I ride a 58cm road bike, should I be sizing down for CX? 56cm opens up a shitload of options!

Not necessarily. Check reach / stack vs. your road bike.

I've decided to upgrade to 1x11 with hydro braking. £1350

4 Attachments

Sizing down to 56 loses about 1cm in both stack and reach. Lower top tube is surely a good thing, 1cm reach is solved with a longer stem, right?

Looks rad. Clearance might be bit stingy tho?

Will be fine unless you're planning to race it, in which you'll want to have as short a stem as possible.

The reach and stack you want to end up with will be different to your road bike.

How you get there matters less. For example you could have a frame the same as your road bike but have a shorter, positive rise stem and wider bars. Overall your stack will be increased and reach shortened but it will be cool.

^ badly written but it's not easy to explain quickly.

I getcha. I think I probably need to get the same size as my road bike in order to increase the stack and keep it comfy, probably best I try a few for size rather than Internet Fitz.™

Yep. I would. The different ht and st angles can make a surprising difference too.

You can plan it to the nth degree on the internet... or you can go and ride a few bikes round a car park FTW.

I'm not so bothered about the clearance there, I wanted no shelf behind the BB.

No front dérailleur should also help a lot.

Forks are full carbon drilled for front pannier racks. I might try and mod them to fit front and rear stabilisers.

Cool beans. I think your chain is out of synch - fat tooth should hit the outer plates.

otherwise its just fine

I see what you mean, cheers.

Update

Wide tooth is thin
Narrow tooth is fat

Chain is OK as pictured.

Glad that's resolved :)

Been to have a look at Giant tcx slr2 today at lbs, no 2015 in my size, but they had spesh crux e5 x1 thingy in, very nice but too much, well over budget. Will have to find a localish shop for a test ride of the giant.

Tried the 58 today and it felt like a fucking barge compared to my road bike, the shop didnt have a 56 in stock so I trekked over to another to try a 56. Felt a million times better even just sat on it in the shop. Pulled the trigger on this baby which should arrive on Tues, aww yiss.