Croix de Fer owners club

I keep coming back to a Croix de fer as a do everything bike. Everything from road to gravel. Opinion seems to be divided between great ride and dull and lifeless. Which make some wonder if it would be a good choice, since I like my bikes to be fun to ride. With the price upgrades there are quite a few alternative options that are now the same or cheaper (spa elan, Sonder santiago, Ribble cgr for example).

Anyone want to venture an opinion on the ride quality or why riders seem to get diametrically opposite impressions of the ride quality.?

Perfect Forest of Dean weekend whip

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I absolutely love mine, its the perfect do it all bike. It has changed alot over the years...Flat bar/basket combo, full tourer, 1x10 drops etc.

Ill never let it go!

Very nice. What are the handlebars you have on there? (The flat one)

the OG On One Mary, 25.4!

I really made a mistake selling mine, and now they're not the value buy they used to be, unless I can find a used one on the forum.

I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve borrowed your choice of bars (31.8, though).

Deore groupset, 650b wheels, flat bar. That should be ok, right?

Turns out this was a pretty stupid thing to say. But I’m getting there.

Good choice brother

After admiring from afar for many years, thought I'd throw my hat in the ring.

Just gone full hydro with 4720 levers/deore calipers.

After switching cable inners/outers the shifting is perfect again. Tiagra really is good stuff.

Edit: apologies for all the shite in the background.

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28" (622) 38mm slick gravelking is enough for "all-road" summer adventures. It is perfect tyre for me and my 2014 frame. No need for bigger tyres.

I updated pedals, m520 to wellgo, and took a new photo.

this is very nice. should post to the early gravel bike thread too

What size is the frame/what's the bag? Custom?

Frame is 56 (2014 stainless), saddle height is 730mm and stem 100mm -10deg. Framebag is custom made by me, black 1000d nylon and white xpac lining. Not waterproof, but my toilet paper is always in a small plastic bag. Also fork's modification is made by me.

I have another bike for bad gravel roads, singletrack and winter rides. I'll post it to gravel thread.

very nice

Love it!

I've recently got my hands on this and done a bit of up-speccing - I used to have Tour De Fer in original factory spec and it weighed a ton, so wanted this to ride much lighter - and it does! Main driver of the different character of the bike is the wheels - this has a much lighter and sprightlier set on it - Hope Pro2 Evo hubs on Mavic rims and some nice supple Conti cross tyres - loads of clearance for the guards even with these on - (excuse th cages, they were all I had when I was building it up - I'll get some black ones at some point!)

Thinking of selling my 2014 Croix de Fer. Ridden around 500 miles but I’ve got a groin injury so hardly riding it at the moment. Sram Rival 22 with Specialized Phenom Saddle, Salsa Cowbell bars, Prime Race wheelset, 3T finishing kit, TRP Spyre brakes and WTB Riddler 700x37 tyres. What do you reckon it’s worth?

£500 max

Cheers. Wonder if I can part exchange for a LaVita…

does anyone has a frame with quick release in size XL for sale?

touring Wales a few weeks ago. Need to update my CP at some point

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shit picture but here's my cdf quickly rebuilt with trp hylex hydro brakes, 1x di2 GRX. hope chainring, cannondale seatpost, fizik cyrano saddle, stans grail rims on hope rs4 hubs.

i had initially planned to install the battery in the steerer with a pro tharsis stem but i discovered some carbon leftovers in the whisky forks :(, making it impossible.
di2 is a tight squeeze in the bb shell, but it works.

more or less ready for KAW at the weekend

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Question for the 2015 CdF 725 owners!
I have been attempting to swap the fork out for something with more mounts but have hit an issue where the shop say that none of the standard tools fit the crown race.

Has anyone else swapped out the crown race? Or had success using a different one?

no bartape?

Is 2015 cdf my own above ?