About to push the button in a rush of blood on a frame from PlanetX for under $500 delivered. Before I do, I thought I’d canvas the opinions of the mob.
Jez had one, it cracked (but it was second hand). They are sik light and look cool so who even cares about quality.
I bought one last year, took it out of the box and thought ‘gee what an ugly made aluminium frame’. I then sold it. The problem is take away the paint, and it looks like a really generic mass produced frame with absolutely nothing to do with Italian soul.
But I’m a snob, and you get what you pay for. Here’s an image of it before I sold it:
^ that looks cool, you crazy in the coconut H.
The images don’t show the terrible welds. The frame didn’t even have a sticker telling you what it’s made from.
^This was before I knew about CX BB height ‘issues’.
BB too high?
yeah i like it, in the red. but i don’t know much about cross. or anything really.
They say max weight is 130 kg. That’s a pretty big skinsuit!
That doesn’t phase me too much. I’m less of a connoisseur. I would like reliability though. As HMC likes to regularly point out, I’ve spent too many years in a good pasture.
Sadly I can’t comment on the reliability as it didn’t make it out of the box, but it’s a pretty burly aluminium frame, it will be fine. I believe you can choose between carbon steerer and alloy steerer- alloy steerer will be more durable I suspect.
dear god, it seems all i do is offend people and call them fat!
anyway, welds are welds. So long as they don’t stop being welds, duneverworryabouded. As for bottom bracket issues, i still have no idea what Horatio is talking about, and how it is a problem. Which is not to say that it isn’t a problem, more that i pay more attention to the colour of a bicycle than its bottom bracket height.
Seems the BB height has been mentioned twice now. Intrigued.
Get it, it looks sweet!
Hey I didn’t mention BB height being a problem for the Lyra. But having said that, being a traditional Italian CX geometry, I’d guess it does have a high BB. IMO this is not a good thing, but most people like yourself probably wouldn’t care.
But I’m a connoisseur apparently! 
At the end of the day it’s a great price
if you can hold off, i’m told there’s a new model about to drop with an adjustable BB height. which may explain why these ones are heavily discounted.
have you seen the 26er/29er frame with two bbs? For testing!
fucking bottom bracket heights, how do they work?
I Googled some stuff from experts and it didn’t make much sense one way or t’other.
It’s like Tiagra…
It’s not rocket science
Regardless, while many bike manufacturers have maintained a more traditional BB drop, custom builders and some bigger brands are increasingly going to a more road like bottom bracket drop. The list of builders who prefer a lower BB includes Mike Ahrens, Max Kullaway (333Fab) and Paul Sadoff of Rock Lobster. Sadoff is rather opinionated on the subject: “I like to put it just about the same as a road bike, between 70 and 73 millimeters. I get very few negative comments and many, many positive comments. People don’t have toe clips on their pedals anymore. They don’t need a 12 inch bottom bracket on a cyclocross bike. Anyone who says they do, I don’t know, they are just hurting themselves. They get a scarier riding, inferior mountain bike.”
Christine Vardaros wholeheartedly agrees with Sadoff:
I have tried everything, and can attest without hesitation or equivocation that bikes with lower brackets, like my Ahrens Whole Shot, are better ? the handling is better, the center of mass is lower, and the whole frame, being closer to the ground, is easier and faster to jump on and off of. I’d consider a slightly higher bottom bracket only if I exchanged my Speedplay Frogs for toe clips – which would never ever happen.
Ah, didn’t mean to imply that H. More that my current ‘cross’ bike is an Apollo hybrid with a dicta freewheel and I fucking love it. I’m more of a masher and not so concerned about lack of italian soul etc.
The price is a big factor. Was going to place an ad in wanted. CX frame under $500.