Best cyclocross bike under £1000 and other CX chat

Anyone have any experience with bar end shifters, kelly take offs or those retroshift things in race situations?

Running a typical 10 speed drive train this year has proved costly and unreliable without a pit bike. I run 8 speed on my road bike (down-tube shifters) and my cross check (bar-end shifters) and can deal with gaps in the cassette okay, it's just the shifting which concerns me.

No race experiance. But I used to hammer it around trials on the mongrel. Which had 9 speed with bar end shifters on drops. So long as you use the flats of the drops a lot its great. You get a feel for what gear you're in by feeling where the lever is with your palm.

The downside is that you cant cover the brake and gear lever at the same time. Plus of course if you're on the hoods more you need to reach down.

Most reliable set-up out there though.

Have a 10 speed Sram 0X mech, and a TT shifter mounted on a thumbie on the fat bike. Just works all the time.