I thought, since on a new ride this season, I may as well post up some details. I've had a few different cross bikes over the years, all good, and all with slight differences. Last years Ridley was a great bike, but I'm banking on this years to be better.
This season I decided to stay with an alloy frame, although carbon is great for cross, light, stiff and responsive, a top quality alloy frame is not far off the mark, and at least half the price.
The Stevens Prestige sits right there. Certainly a lighter than the
Ridley Crossbow, it is not much heavier than many carbon frames out
there. I'm running the same build that I have been for the past four
seasons, Sram Force, solid, reliable.
A DuraAce 7800 crankset has been
on every cross frame I've used in that same time frame. Bars, stem,
seatpost has also changed this season, BBB Cycling Components for that
stuff, along with all the other little small parts.
A couple of years ago I switched over to Kore brakes from TRP "frogleg" style. the use of a modern pad holder is a lot nicer, and easier to adjust. Standard road pads make for easy swap out for alloy and carbon specific pads.
I am still debating on switching over to a mini-V style this season. Kelly loves hers, and on a couple of test rides on her bike they do feel really good, so we'll see where that ends up.
All of the cables are fully sealed, Nokon links with Jagwire inner sleeves and cables. They are holding up really well so far, as had just about every sealed system I've used. The exception being GORE, I've never been too impressed after having a set in less than a month of cross use get destroyed. The internal routing for the shift cables is and nice clean too.
Cables exit the down tube and run external to derailleurs from there.
A new set of wheels are in this year, 38mm Carbon hoops, I laced up to Sokin hubs. I'm calling the wheels prototypes, so far the build is holding up beautifully (1 month racing, no truing) which means, a good chance we'll import some more to build for next season.
Challenge Tires have been a staple in the lineup for a few years,
quality/consistency has gotten better.They give a nice soft ride, and lots of grip. The Griffo has been my favorite for some time now, while the Fango is good for damp/tacky conditions. I haven't used the Limus yet, but do have a pair, for the really nasty stuff.
The bike rides really well, handles quick, fast pickup, nice and stiff where it needs to be. I don't feel much rear end flex under power, but it still rides a bit smoother than the Ridley did. I could still use a slightly shorter head tube (its extended up compared to Stevens Carbon models for some reason).
I also swapped out the stock fork with my Easton EC90x, this also raised the front end about 5mm, but I think the saved weight (250g) is worth the ~quarter to half degree in head angle slack.
So far I am really happy with the bike, and am looking forward to the second half of the season. After four weeks of racing, in just about every condition, I'm sure that November will pack it fair share of wild conditions!
