[Closed] Cycle to work scheme cyclocross bike de jour.

Boardman

Pinnacle Arkos.
Evans are easy to deal with and have nice customer service.

No Halford on our bike to work.

Genesis Croix de Fer 10? £850

No steel,not got on with steel bikes off road.

Going to recommend the bike I have, Planet X London Road, really impressed with mine!

Bromley Bike Company has a Salsa Warbird 3 for a stupidly low price. £799 I think. It's lovely. If it's your size, it'd be a cracker.

C2W for monthly payments or effective price reduction?

http://www.ukbikesdepot.com/m117b0s862p11647/SARACEN_Hack_2_Cyclocross_Bike_2014

similar saving to C2W if youre a basic rate tax payer. Loving mine.

And the 56 measures 54 FYI.

Ridley x-bow all road?

http://www.ridley-mobile.com/be/en/bikes/4/227/139/cyclocross/x-bow-20-disc-allroad-1505am

I have an Arkose 4 and a Saracen Hack. The Saracen Hack is a bit of a beast weight wise, and feels a bit sluggish, so its been on the turbo ever since I got dropped on the club run.

Only had the Arkose a short while and its a 105 spec rather than Tiagra on the Hack but on the road it feels a lot zippier.

The Arkose 3 in green would be within the cyclescheme limit.

Evans are easy to deal with

True.

have nice customer service.

Not in my experience de jour.

The guys/gals in Chill Factore have always been ok with me. Taken a couple of items back for warranty and they've been fine.

I haven't really needed to ask much of them, so I don't know what their in-depth knowledge is like.

Cannondale was my choice. LBS who did the cyclescheme, were a 'dale dealer, bike rode lovely. All good. Just a shame I didn't wait a year and get a disc brake version!

Had a look at all mentioned above, my eye has been drawn this though

[img] [/img]

Any objections, it looks great.

You need to check the steerer tube, stem and handlebars are some weird Giant specific "standard" possibly prevent upgrades.

Also the fork/ front hub is 15mm bolt through, which again may limit upgrade choices.

Also the fork/ front hub is 15mm bolt through, which again may limit upgrade choices.

The entry one isn't, which is in the OPs budget, nice bike but the wheels are heavy, but that's not a show stopper as there are so many wheel options available.

The Saracen Hack is a bit of a beast weight wise

interested to see if you've managed to quantify and account for the differences if any in weight between the two as on the Hack, as with most budget bikes

the wheels are heavy,

The OE wheels are 2200g and the slicks >500g each. I treated mine to some V3Discs (1620g) and the Schwalbe CX Pro tyres are less than 300g a piece. I've dropped a kilo in weight and those huge slicks are pretty draggy (though I'll be relying on them for the Paris Roubaix cobbles).

The Giant is v nice and if I was spending ~£1k on CTW it'd be a toss-up between that and the equivalent Cannondale. I got my Hack for the same price as the one I linked so even with V3 Discs and new tyres it came in at £1K.

Got an early Arkrose and it's been amazing. Takes rack and guards for commuting. One chain, one cassette, two sets of tyres, two sets of brake pads in two years/6k miles of towpath commuting, audax and winter road rides.

Love it to bits, even if it is a bit scruffy and lardy. Do bikes look like their owners?

I've been tempted by the Genesis CdA 20 - alu-framed disk braked 1* 10 CX. Perfect commuter material for me. The only slight issue is that it's SRAM doubletap gear/brake levers rather than the Shimano STIs I'm using at the moment

Arkose or Norco Threshold A1.

Getting old, the chaps are getting into these..

You know we'll sell ours and buy BMXs as soon as you click 'buy'... 😉

DrP

EDIT - on a serious note, the Pinnacles are very nice. As is that giant.

I'm starting to think of a geared commuter as my knees feel like they are suffering from single speeding a bit, plus it'd be nice to have brakes that work, the frogs legs on my Pomp are next to useless.

Have had in consideration the Arkose 2/3, Norco equivalent, London road, Kaffenback, Croix and even the Spa cycles commuter.

Still no closer to a decision though, so I'll watch this with interest.

I may regret this, as I know a few people with Spa bikes who love them, but I can't see their commuter bike?

No steel,not got on with steel bikes off road.

huh ?

Giant doesn't do proper mudguards which is a show stopper I think.

Will look at 'dales

Crashtest - I haven't quantified the differences yet. On the Hack I swapped off the tyres for some 28mm giants straight away and they were lighter but still draggy.

My Hack weighed 24lb last time I weighed it and the Pinnacle 22lb with 28mm conti's and its obviously a 105 groupo vs the Tiagra on the hack.

The pinnacle frame looks a but more slimline but appearances can be deceptive.

Did the wheels make a difference you could feel?

Did the wheels make a difference you could feel?

Definitely. To be fair the swap was wheels+tyres so the full ~1kg but even with mud-friendly CX Pros on it accelerated on road quicker and feels more agile/responsive.

My Hack weighed 24lb last time I weighed it and the Pinnacle 22lb with 28mm conti's and its obviously a 105 groupo vs the Tiagra on the hack

interesting as that's a decent difference (2lbs ~ 1kg) and I doubt the groupset counts for anything noticeable. I was amazed how light my knobbly 30mm CX Pros were compared to the OE slicks (think the lightest CX Pro was ~250g which isn't massively more than the 23/25mm slicks on my road bikes) so tyres is obviously the top £/g area but the 600g off the wheels is pretty significant (cant imagine how much I'd have to spend to drop 600g off my road bike!).

Been looking a lot lately for this type of bike on a budget
Just bought a white Sussex from edinburgh cycles
Not strictly cx, has 28c tyres but should take 35? Sora gears, hydro discs, 510 quid, will do for me

I was another one in the £1k C2W cyclocross boat.....and went for this because I liked the pretty colour. Tiagra and CX expert brakes And probably a few quid of Bianchi tax over the equivalents but Giant and Spesh's CX bikes were over the £1k limit (my company uses Cyclesoultions so no option to 'top up').

[img] http://www.bianchi.com/getimage.aspx?Code=9af4efd9-ba20-48ac-a9ba-0bf860ed289c&Width=1500&Height=1050&ResizeMode=Crop [/img]

Picked up my arkose 3 last Sunday, very pleased with it. 10kg as wheeled out of Evans with no pedals. Wheel set is 1.9kg so not bad. Swapped a few bits, now 9.6kg with pedals. Well recommended (I bought in January sale when reduced to 850, bargain!)

I was looking at the Trek crossrip comp.
There are two cheaper models at £1000 & £850, but you might be tempted by the comp.
Gorgeous looking bike, but I have acquired a different bike for a different reason, so will not be getting the Trek (unless I get a bigger shed)

Hey Crashtestmonkey, a bit more feedback/comparison.....the Alex rimmed wheels on the Arkose were pretty light to start with. I reckon I only saved half a pound if that on swapping to Kinesis CX wheels.

Anyone ridden both the Arkose and a kinesis Crosslight pro6? How do they compare? Is the Crosslight worth the extra cash? (I know it's over the £1k CTW thingy, but self employed and can't do that anyway 🙁 )

Stuck between cable discs and STIs, vs hydraulics and dodgy 1x10 with bar end shifter... I don't fancy the hydraulic STIs before that gets suggested...

More for shorter blasts than touring, some commuting with tame off road at times.

Thanks

Currently trying to choose between
Pinnacle Arkose 2
Pinnacle Arkose 3
Cannondale Caadx 105
and
Cube Cross Race

Any thoughts?
After something more racey / suitable for easy single track rather than a commuting/touring bike

I have a 2015 Arkose (just a 1) and I can't fault it. Well finished, fairly lively and not too much of a boneshaker. Pound for pound it's the best bike I've bought for a long time

Purchased a Genesis CDA20 as my daily commute and can honestly say its a great bike for the money.
Don't be put off by the sram 1x10 it is great and easy to use.

I usually use my Kaffenback for commute only role but the cda20 is all i need as its a bit lighter and looks nice too!!

@ allmcmurdo:
Am currently down to 3 bikes to choose from on the £1k cycle scheme
Bianchi Zurigo
Kona Jake
Genesis CdA
Please give me some feedback on the lovely Bianchi - can not find a ride review anywhere - if any one else has experience of any of the above please advise....

@ Dazmo, how do you think the CdA20 would fare at a bike park blue/red route - could it be my bike for riding with the wife and kids on trails and tracks??