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So I'm more keen on buying new and building my own, with a setup very similar to yours. I have a few questions though:
- How do you find the Swiss Cross for bikepacking?
- How do you find 1x for bikepacking? What's your cassette and chainring?
- How did you fit that third bottle cage???
- How do you find the Swiss Cross for bikepacking?
martbart87-
Overall decent, done a few trips on mine now - around the Dales/Peak District multiple times, Scotland & Türkiye. I find it rides pretty well loaded up. The geometry makes for it being pretty twitchy on the road at higher speeds (I find it gets a bit sketchy going above 35mph on descents with it whereas I'd be comfortable on my road bike), but less that's important for bikepacking trips I'd imagine.
I had originally this built up as 2x, but then the shifting mechanism in the left hand shifter went kaput so was forced to go 1x. I'd prefer 2x at the end of the day, but 1x works good enough. My Croix de Fer which the Ritchey replaced was 1x & did a bunch of touring on that too, never had a problem with it if you find the gear range for you. Think I have 44x11-42T on the Swiss Cross right now which works well for me.
Third bottle cage was fitted by my local bike shop, Woodrup Cycles. Got it installed for Türkiye tour as needed to carry plenty of water. It's just a rivnut style thing so pretty straight forward.
GideonPARANOID
Price seems a little high with how worn the frame is. All the WCS kit leans in its favour though. I got mine (frame & forks) on eBay a few years back & it was unused for £660.
They do inevitably get bashed around though, mine is a matte black now, no longer the lovely shiny thing it once was. Fab frame though, thoroughly enjoy mine.