Ten starter cyclo-cross bikes
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Jamis Nova Sport £580
Jamis is an East coast American company, who have been around since the ’70s and produce a bike for every rider. All this and they are one of the oldest, largest bicycle companies still under original family ownership in America.
The Nova Sport is a new model for Jamis that comes in at a wallet saving price of £580. Despite this super low price Jamis have still been able to include disc brakes and an intergrated, tapered headset.
A mixture of Shimano’s 2300 and Sora groupsets and a FSA compact chainset (50-34) help keep the price down. One thing about the 2300 shifters is that they use a side button, rather that the usual Shimano STI dual lever to change down; not a major problem, but worth noting.
Overall the Nova Sport is a good looking machine, with understated graphics in grey, that should blend fairly easy with rest of your fleet. At its heart is a 7005, double butted frameset: a good candidate for upgrading?
Specialized Tricross Sport Disc £1000
The Tricross isn’t a pure cyclo-cross machine, in fact it comes under the freeroad section on the Specialized website. It’s pitched more at the multi-use end of the off-road going road bike, but that shouldn’t stop you; if you cant justify getting two new bikes, the Tricross might just fit the bill as an all-rounder.
An alloy fork and frame, with internal cable routing and disc brakes all point at off-road ability, while rack and mudguard eyes keep the multi-use flag flying. Not an out-and-out race machine perhaps, but still capable.
The Tricross uses Shimano’s new Sora groupset, including a triple chainset, which is not a race set-up, but it will get you over climbs when fully laden. It also comes fitted with Specialized’s Elite-Set 4-position adjustable stem, which uses shims to allow you to change the stem length/angle: here’s a diagram, to explain.
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[…] mtbs. I’ve put together a list of what I think are some good first time ‘cross bikes on CycleTechReview, which show the kind of bikes a lot of people were […]