Best cyclocross bike under £1000 and other CX chat

Ditch the cross tops - utterly pointless.

I'm going to- used them purely for the novelty, not once to stop with.

But they are useful in highlighting the BBX brakes sensitivity to cable pull length- they need the ratio between cable length pulled and actuation delivered to be changed to work effectively with road brake levers

http://www.cotic.co.uk/product/interface/x/gallery_loose/big/Kates_prototype.jpg

Typing as I think- would a longer torque arm achieve greater caliper actuation for a set amount of cable pulled?

^Room for 42mm winter spikes,
eyelets for full guards,
and orange.

Looked long and hard at it- £500 more than the Boardman.

...
and orange.

I'll just leave this here:

I'm thinking CX-commuter, not CX-racer though. I'd throw it around some well prepared mountain trails too, for shit'n'kicks. Not really standard CX use though.

ED: I only need the frameset.

I bought the Boardman because all of the MTB'ing I did in the 90's was on fully rigid bikes- and I guess that what we called Mountain Biking would be simple cross-country these days.

i.e. stuff that my new bike should be able to handle nicely.

South Downs way between Winchester (my folks) and Eastbourne ('er indoors folks) for example.

Cross country is exactly what I use mine for. Of course a rigid CX bike is different from a rigid MTB due to much smaller tyres and therefore lack of cushioning.

I find them faster to ride as I spend 80% of time in drops and prefer that position to the more upright MTB position. However, my body is still suffering this morning after yesterdays ride which contained a good few miles of dried out trails with embedded hoof holes! Unfortunately a downside of the hot dry weather and much more comfortable in the winter with soft ground.

The Boardman looks nice as I like discs, however in reality I don't need them as I rarely use my brakes and when I do my mini Vs with Swisstop pads work very well in all weathers.
And it has that new fangled multi speed stuff on it...

Ditch the cross tops - utterly pointless.

Unless you want a more upright position in traffic and the ability to get further back when dropping your arse off the back of the saddle.

Traffic? In a cross race?

Summer duty as my only road bike with gears.

What other CX bikes have made the shift to disc this year apart from the Boardman?

The Cotic has them, I guess you could count the Pompetamine?

Specalized have developed a disk version of the CruX

I'm going to- used them purely for the novelty, not once to stop with.

But they are useful in highlighting the BBX brakes sensitivity to cable pull length- they need the ratio between cable length pulled and actuation delivered to be changed to work effectively with road brake levers

Surely if your bike fits you properly you spend your time riding on the hood, so like Andy said crosstop are pointless?

The crosstop levers are annoying... the brake feel is completely different like dammit says. Also there is very little control when riding like a t Rex, so the suggestion that position is better for technical riding doesn't hold up. I'm only leaving them on for now as it has jagwire cabling which I think would be a waste of money to replace for what is just aesthetically displeasing.

Did 60 miles to skipton and back on a bumpy canal yesterday, handed it great apart from headset still not sorted.

Surely if your bike fits you properly you spend your time riding on the hood, so like Andy said crosstop are pointless?

Or in the drops. The only time I ever hold the bars by the stem is when going uphill and back in the saddle and I won't be using my brakes at that point.
The lack of control in that position off road means the cross top lever position is lost on me.

Surely if your bike fits you properly you spend your time riding on the hood, so like Andy said crosstop are pointless?

I'm agreeing with Andy- I was pointing out that the only use I can ascribe to the cross-tops at the moment is to highlight how the brakes should feel, but (currently) don't.

I've not used them once to actually slow down- they feel like they are in a totally un-intuitive location (for me, anyway) when it comes to using the brakes.

I'm going to give the current BB5's a week or so, then, if I cannot get them to work as I want, they are coming off, BB7 are going on, with new, hopefully flat rotors, and I'll strip off the cross tops and replace the cable outers with linear-pull sheathing.

I will make these work!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Cyclocross-Bike-Focus-Cross-Disc-2008-/150594241088?pt=UK_Bikes_GL&hash=item23101dc240#ht_669wt_1032


probably quite ok.

Any other races using TRP CX 9 mini v's? Thinking of getting a set for next season and was looking for any opinions, I think andyp mentioned them?

http://www.universalcycles.com/shopping/product_details.php?id=35105&category=13

Anyone used these? They are the brakes on the Focus Henry linked to above

Really spongy and underpowered, save your pennies for avids.

Any other races using TRP CX 9 mini v's? Thinking of getting a set for next season and was looking for any opinions, I think andyp mentioned them?

I did. I've got them set up on my cross bike now and am impressed with them so far, but at the moment it's doing summer duties as the child carrying bike so I've not used them in a race yet. They are pretty straightforward to set up and have a decent feel, but you have to run them quite loose to get proper modulation. I'll add some Swiss Stop brake pads in time for the cross season.

Great thanks, what levers are you running?

I bet one million dollar on Campag Chorus