Thoughts?
I’m a roadie who commutes fixed. Have been considering a new bike to mix-up the commuting (boulie laps on way home etc) and also enable me to dabble in CX.
Online reviews suggest the Crux is equally at home on as off, and thus appeals for this reason. Any other recos?
They look sexy, that’s got to amount for somthing.
Yeah - not sure if I mentioned it but I got one for christmas 
It rides awesome both on and off road - not as good as my roadie for long rides but the 20km commute I do to work is easy as. It is a race specific CX bike ie no rack mounts and good CX geo. My last CX bike was a old steel job so anything is better. I got the blue/yellow/red frame and it gets lots of looks. Not much of a review I know, but I am upgrading just about everything and want to wait until it’s all dialed in before giving a review my full attention.
Here are some links you might like.
I have a 2011 Elite model, I love it, it’s the ultimate fast hackaround bike. The frame looks good, welds are mostly pretty smooth, the internal cabling is well-done. It feels really solid and planted at the front and canti chatter is absent except for absolutely extreme stops. Power transfer is good when you hammer it; if you put narrower slicks on it you’ll reveal the rear end to be pretty harsh - not much fancy shaping on the seat stays. It’s pretty stable on fast descents too. I had no problem either climbing or descending Donna Buang with it the other week.
The spec on the '12 Elite looks to have been downgraded to Sora stuff which is a mild shame. If you have spare bits then maybe get the fluoro frameset and build it up. I recall the main changes with the '12 model are BB30 and extra lining for the internal cable routing. (And the disc brake versions, if that floats your boat.)
Thanks, awesome, confirms what I was hoping for. The bonus of being able to use it as a fill-in roadie is exactly what I’m after. The fluro is certainly bright!
If anyone knows of any good deals on them, let me know.
The bottom bracket height on the Crux is more like a road bike than a traditional CX so that’s a big +1.
My only concern is the internal cable routing and whether it eventually fills up with crud. Or perhaps you just get Gore sealed and not worry about it?
The outer on the cables runs all the way through the frame - sealed all the way from the shifter to the derailleurs.
I was thinking of putting something like a v-brake boot thingy between the end of the outer and where the inner connects at the derailleur. But then I thought that was getting a bit anal.
Horatio - I’ve never paid much attention to BB height as I haven’t ventured away from road/fixed. What’s the negatives associated if the BB wasn’t road height?
The handling is negatively affected if the frame has a high BB, as well as the standover height.
not again… please.
i’d suggest doing a search on the forum for where the positives and negatives of BB height for cross (and in part road) are discussed in more balanced and valid terms.
the handling is affected, whether its negative or not depends on what you want out of the bike/how you ride.
i wont argue that the standover height is changed but since when is that an actual factor on a bike’s fit (for an average or better rider).
Ha! looks like I’ve inadvertedly strayed onto the shores of gallipoli 
I’m completely ignorant on this point, so I’ll do some back-ground reading.
Thanks
I built up a SRAM Force model for a workmate and took it for a quick squirt on road/gravel/gardens, It made my penis smile
I think I might find myself building up a frameset in the near future.
Just got back from Daisy Hill (MTB trails south of Brisbane). It rides awesome. Front end is fantastic, I didn’t get any break shudder or stupid stuff going on, just solid contact with the dirt the whole time. I really like the headtube angle compared to my old frame, it seems to know what it is doing when I don’t. Climbing is easy too, stood up a few times and got hardly any slippage in the back.
Only complaint was the double pinch flat bombing a hill back to the carpark - my fault for running 40psi when I know there are massive rocks and tree roots everywhere.
Stybar’s pink one of these is epic. Apparently the colour’s a tribute to old Specialized MTBs that rocked drop bars in the '80s?
this is what i’ve heard as well…
Horse’s mouth:
http://www.specialized.com/us/en/bc/SBCWideGlobalPages.jsp?pageName=CruX
via http://bikehugger.com/post/view/specialized-a-legacy-of-pink
So you can buy the pink colourway for a limited time eh
Just bought my own frameset, built it up and took it away for a weekend at Forrest riding some amazing singletrack.
I was suprised at how well it rode. absolutely fucking awesome.
I think I want the pink one. Anyone fancy a '11 Crux Elite, 56cm??