Best cyclocross bike under £1000 and other CX chat

To be confirmed, but a short season as we've another baby due in December.

^ Congrats Andy!!

(on finding a good excuse to sack off half a season).

I'd imagine one of the few things more knackering than a CX race is a new born child.

Congrats Andy!

Congrats Andy!

I still reckon I can ride the majority of the London X League races, so am not sacking off that much. I just know that from the middle of December disappearing off for half a day will be impossible.

TCC Mac will be running CX training sessions at Old Deer Park starting Sept. Last year these were on Thursday nights - he'll confirm later which night he intends to run them.

Old Deer Park in Richmond...???

Yep. Will post further details when I get them.

Cross post from the AQA thread:

The front fork on my CAADX had cantilever brakes on it. When removed, the forks have no brakes bosses or pin holes to steady the new mini-v brakes.

Can I buy v-brake bosses to screw into the holes in the fork?

Yes.

Any chance of a photo? Sounds different to my 2011 fork.

Yes.

Any chance of a photo? Sounds different to my 2011 fork.

It turns out that the bosses had just welded to the canti screws and came off with the brakes. They're back on the fork now.

The issue is now that there aren't any spring pin holes in the forkto set the brakes in to....

Does your 2011 fork have even one hole?

Much like MTB'rs then. Yes we photo our bikes all dirty'd up. But I for one would'nt store one away after a ride before it'd been at least hosed and wiped down.

Start them young.

Does your 2011 fork have even one hole?

The hole for the spring is not integrated into the fork - there's a silver plate that's clamped by the boss screw that you can rotate to modify the spring tension. Does this not work with Mini-vs?

I have them but they're moving under braking. I've tried tightening them as much as I dare but I don't want to damage the fork...

I might try and bodge a better washer.

Ayup all

Having started to ask super-basic questions over here, I would love some advice on a potential cross bike purchase.

I can't really spend much more than £1k, and am currently eyeing up this guy.
Though having had a read through this thread it seems like the Cannondale CAADX is a popular choice?

Having trouble working out which is better value as the Kinesis has full crabon forks and full tiagra groupset, while the CAADX has 105 bits, albeit with FSA chainset?

Or could I get a bit more bike for my money by shopping around and building either frame from scratch??

Planning on racing it? The immediate thing to note about the Kinesis is that it ships with compact rings whereas the CAAD ships with cross rings, i.e. 36/46

The CAAD is pretty heavily discounted at the moment so if you can get one on sale price it's a clear winner, assuming it fits etc.

Ahh I see, so compact being more road-oriented? Probably not that interested in competing, certainly not initially anyway. Never say never though.

I actually need a decent bike fit doing, so hopefully I can manage that before all the cheap bikes get snapped up. Won't be back in the UK for 6 weeks either so it won't be happening before then :(

I should really use the time to price stuff up to see if I could build something similar for a bit less...

Tiagra is dog shit.

Modern 105 is ace for the price.

Having trouble working out which is better value as the Kinesis has full crabon forks and full tiagra groupset, while the CAADX has 105 bits, albeit with FSA chainset?

As long as it fits, I'd go with the CAADX. The 105 is much nicer & The chainset is probably the easiest thing to swap out in the future. Especially as you may change your mind about what gear ratios to run/the intended use of the bike etc...

I like to build a bike from the frame up if I know exactly what components to put on it. When I came from a mtb background & bought my first road bike, I bought a complete bike & then upgraded it slowly.

Yeah I think you're right about the buying complete. I also don't think I'll get close to the same build for <£1k.

If I manage to pick one up on the cheap, I could always use the extra bits to upgrade stuff too. Just have to wait till I'm home now :|

Kinesis Crosslight Pro6- I like the look of it, would there be any point in changing my frame to one?

If you don't like BB30 then possibly - it's standard English, isn't it?

As long as it fits, I'd go with the CAADX. The 105 is much nicer & The chainset is probably the easiest thing to swap out in the future.

Well, the rings are easy to swap. Chainset is BB30 and all the excitement that comes with it.

Kinesis Crosslight Pro6- I like the look of it, would there be any point in changing my frame to one?

Its lovely, and may well be a future commuter for me.

But no.

If you don't like BB30 then possibly - it's standard English, isn't it?

Its lovely, and may well be a future commuter for me.

But no.

Thanks for the twin voices of sanity there.

For reasons of stupidity I'd not considered the BB aspect - rather foolish as I have a fairly significant investment in the cranks.

I'd throw a new coat of paint on the Boardman just to freshen it up, but cannot help but think that Spring might be the time to do that.