Cross Bike - Recommendations

Hi Chaps,

A friend of mine is returning to cycling after a long break and was asking for some advice on what sort of bike to get.

He will be mainly commuting, but would like the option to use off road. He has settled on the idea of a cross bike.

Hopefully the bike will be purchased through the cycle to work scheme.

So now after some recommendations. Budget isn't huge, circa £500

So lets have some thoughts

Mark

Kona make some nice x bikes. nearly bought one my self. Till I found out that work don't use the cycle to work scheme

Does you mate want a real cross bike with drop bars etc?

If he really wants a roadbike with some " chunkier" features to take on mixed terrain then most mass manufacturers make flat bar bikes with enough clearance on the forks to take a wider cross type tyre.

My OH bought a Trek flatbar bike and is running it with a Specialized cross type tyre that sheds mud fantastically on muddy trails and is also not bad on tarmac. It has "v" brakes so doesn't clog up here either.

Another point to bear in mind is that is £500 budget will go further on the Bike to Work scheme as the employer claims the VAT back and the employee sets the cost of the bike against their salary before tax is taken off.


I work for a Local; Council and with VAT, tax advantage and the discount offered by the LBS the cost of a bike is about 40% less than list price.

The Focus cross bikes available through Wiggle are fantastic value, especially when they clear out older models. Not sure how that would fit with C2W though.

Also, IIRC there was some link between Halfrauds and Voodoo a few years back, not sure if your friend could do something with that, if the link still exists.

Fuji make some nice cross models. Speak to Damien @ MP cycles the UK importer on 01942 254100 for more info.

hope you dont mind me using your thread

How good a compromise between on an off road is a cross bike..i mainly use my hack bike mtb for road and canal towpath stuff.....

are they a good "cross" between the two?

I'm using my sort-of cross bike for commuting and canal-path type stuff - it's ideal. You can take them properly off road too but you'd have to go a bit slower and you might not have the gear range if you're running just 2 rings up front.

http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewto ... highlight=

I've read cyclocrossers say that they can't understand why someone would ride one other than when racing? They're too specific. The spesh tricross seems like a good compromise but still a compromise nontheless.

Depends really on where you mates emphasis lies - mainly road but wanting the option of offroad or mainly offroad but with some road section.

Many of the currently marketed cross bikes are not really hardcore race bikes - the presence of bottle cage bosses and often rack and mudguard eyelet gives it away. No problem with that at all of course, just marks them out as versatile. FWIW, and not to head too off topic, I find riding familiar trails on a cross bike really fun, not better or worse than a mountainbike but just different and really gives new life to trails you are getting a bit bored with. Depends on the trail though naturally.

One thought that might be worth considering is a 29er with pretty narrow tyres - would handle commuting fine and obviously offroad well.