Which of these 2 bikes? Cannondale Quick CX1 or Trek DS 8.5?

Vegeta

Vegeta

Vegeta

Soldato
Joined
6 Nov 2004
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Why does he want a mountain bike? I suspect a CycloCross bike would be better. At least that way when he goes on road he's not having a stupidly heavy frame to lug around. Something like this.
 
Probably going to get shot for this (not for the bike, rather for the retailer who stocks it) but have a look at the Boardman Team CX. It's in the same sort of price bracket as the ones above but has drop handle bars, but with brake levers on the horizontal bars too giving you lots of freedom. It also has disk brakes which will be better when offroad/in the wet paired with a carbon fork to offer good rigidity but decent dampening of shocks. It's got rave reviews everywhere i've read about it, catch is it's only sold by Halfords, but most LBS' will build a bike for you for ~£50 thus nullifying the issue of monkeys building it badly. Unlike a lot of CX bikes it's also got standard mounts for everything you could want (mudguards, pannier etc.), again making it a decent jack of all trades.

Chuck a pair of 28mm slick tyres on there and it's a decent enough road bike, when you want to go off-road/a mixture you can chuck some 35 CX tyres on there.

[EDIT] Forgot the link:

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/..._productId_777735_langId_-1_categoryId_165710
 
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George Hincapie said:
Nothing wrong with Boardman at all. They have a proper CX bike in their range as well I think.
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If by 'proper' you mean their super duper CX bike, sadly isn't on sale in the UK. Shame as it solves the only issue i have with the Team CX; it uses BB7 disk brakes instead of the rather fussy BB5s which require adjusting often. I think their top of the range CX bike would be considerably more expensive than the Team though (which is £1k itself). Both use S-Ram gears which while sturdy lack the... finesse of equivalent Shimano stuff from what i've read which is a shame but i'm sure the parts will be swapped out for preferable ones as the stock stuff wears out.
 
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Streeteh said:
If by 'proper' you mean their super duper CX bike, sadly isn't on sale in the UK. Shame as it solves the only issue i have with the Team CX; it uses BB7 disk brakes instead of the rather fussy BB5s which require adjusting often. I think their top of the range CX bike would be considerably more expensive than the Team though (which is £1k itself). Both use S-Ram gears which while sturdy lack the... finesse of equivalent Shimano stuff from what i've read which is a shame but i'm sure the parts will be swapped out for preferable ones as the stock stuff wears out.
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Not a good idea for the OP, but you could always buy a new bike, strip the SRAM and sell on eBay, and fit the grouppo you want. Same with the brakes.
 
George Hincapie said:
Not a good idea for the OP, but you could always buy a new bike, strip the SRAM and sell on eBay, and fit the grouppo you want. Same with the brakes.
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Aye, i personally have no problem with the SRAM stuff, it's perfectly smooth and from what i've read very sturdy, it just makes loud clunks and grinding noises that are slightly worrying but apparently normal.

I'll likely be investing in BB7s eventually though, i can see me losing my nut with having to constantly adjust the brakes.
 
I've got Sram Apex on my winter commuter (with Force shifters). It doesn't grind or clunk when properly set up, unless you mean the lever release when you change down but I call that positive feedback :)

Planet X keep doing BB7 Roads at half price if you keep an eye out.
 
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