So I’ve got some dosh burning a hole in my pocket and I really want to pick up a carbon CX frame or bike. Is the X-Fire a bad ass or does one need to step up to the X-Night to experience Ridley goodness? The Ibis seems to be well done as well, and I can’t for the Trek Cronus with its lifetime warranty, a plus for carbon if beat it up and keep for a while.
Someone fill me in on the Ridley, more exactly, how decent is the X-Fire?
X-fire is defs bad ass. And you can get it painted in any colour you want!
the geometry on ridleys is usually very good.
Looking at some reviews on the Cronus, again I like the idea of a lifetime warranty, and Trek has taken care of me twice now with broken frames. Some would argue perhaps they shouldn’t have broken in the first place, and yes, that’s true, but it’s better than breaking a frame without a lifetime warranty.
The front cable hanger is quite odd, there isn’t much travel between the hanger and the canti bridge. Is this a problem? Can it be mounted in a different way. I was thinking if I were to switch to mini-V’s there might not be enough clearance with that hanger.
if you run mini-v’s, you won’t be using the cable hanger anyway. and if it does interfere with your setup, you can just remove it altogether.
Perfect… good to know.
EDIT… and my last train of thought is… to disc or not to disc? I know it’s all the rage right now, but is it going to stick in the CX world? Personally I don’t care at this moment, I think the canti’s on my current CX bike are pretty average, but having never race with discs on a road or CX bike I can’t comment, most folks are probably in the same category. I like the idea of running a carbon wheel without rim brakes some day, that really about it, full carbon wheels w/ gritty brakes making contact isn’t a good combination, disc will change the wheel lacing and add some extra mass, but it’ll keep those pretty carbon surfaces intact.
My Crux has the same front hanger setup.
It is supposed to reduce fork shudder, and considering I have never felt any, it must be true.
I am going to chime in on the whole Trek lifetime warranty here. I know quite closely 4 people who’s trek MTB 29ers all broke, all in the same place in the chain stay. 2 were honoured with a warranty job and the other two weren’t because they were racing. Trek were very rude to my friend about the whole event and because of this he sold all of his other bikes including his wives to find another brand to be loyal to.
There are so many other options out there… fuck Trek, I would never ride one.
If I were you, I would go the ibis. Great customer service and a little more ‘boutique’.
Interesting feedback, I’ve not known Trek to shy away from replacing a “raced” frame. My own experience is this… bought a Trek 5200 in 2003, rode/raced it for years, in 2008 the fork broke, Trek replace it with a new OCLV fork. Moved to Australia in 2009, broke the frame in 2011, Trek replaced it in Australia for no cost, got a new carbon Madone frame out of the deal. (I had my LBS in Texas send a copy of my receipt to the shop in Australia.) That bike had done more race km’s than I can count, I don’t recall anyone from Trek ever asking if it had been raced. So my personal experience with Trek is that their warranty is awesome. Oh… in 2003 I also had a Trek Fuel 98 (carbon FS MTB), I broke that at the seat stay, Trek replaced it in less than a week. That bike had been raced every weekend since I had bought it, and my local shop knew that, I’m sure the Trek rep knew it too, no question their part, they just replaced it. (breakage resulting from crash damage is a different story, usually the rep will try to determine, in that case a discounted “crash replacement” is offered.) Lastly, it’s not usually Trek proper that decides about the replacement, it’s usually the local bike shop, it sounds as if your friends either didn’t buy their bikes from the shop they took it to, or tried to get some warranty love on bikes they had purchased second hand.
It was Trek calling the shots. The bikes were bought locally in Canberra through a shop… my mate and his wife are very involved with the local MTB racing scene so I thought it was not a smart decision to knock them back.
Your experience sounds top shelf though, so maybe there was more to it than I was led to believe. But it still won’t change the fact that I will never buy a Trek, I know too many of them through my circle of riding mates that have ended up having to get a warranty job on them.
get an ibis if you want the looks, a ridley if you want the race proven performance.
dunno much about the treks but they look nice.
the old hakkalugis had a great rep, havent heard much about how they ride.
my bike hits the ground/sticks out on the trails too much for carbon at this point. if all i did was race on it, maybe… but id love to ride one.
if you go discs… hope you dont flat mid-race. there will be plenty of spare wheels in the pits this year… but i dont think many of them will be discs.
Have worked in a LBS for over 10 years, dealing with Trek for majority of those years, only recently not a brand we are carrying under our roof. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING BUT GOOD EXPERIENCES WITH WARRANTY ISSUES, I’d like to hope that EzyLee’s mates experience was an isolated one.
Lifetime warranty is nice for peace of mind, especially if you are buying carbon and putting it through the rigorous nature of CX riding/racing.
EDIT: Their Bontrager wheel warranty is also very good, 5 years if i recall correctly.
I think this is a good point. Carbon is great for racing, but who here has a specific race-only cx bike? I imagine most peps have a cx bike that performs many tasks, and carbon may be too fragile for this.
I do agree, this is why I value the Trek above the Ibis and Ridley, my thoughts on carbon is not if I’ll break it, it’s more a matter of when. I don’t know what Ridley’s warranty is, I believe it’s a few years, same with Ibis. With only 8 or so CX races per year and a handful of gravel grinders I’ll reckon I’ll have the bike for ages. That’s where Trek comes in, the lifetime warranty has paid off for me in the past, and it’s so attractive for CX as well. I’ve had my current CX bike for a year now, I’d say it probably get the same or less abuse than my road bike. Sure the wheels on the CXer have been a bit more knocked around, but the frame/fork have had an easy life. My thoughts on warranty should extend to Spesh and Giant as well, of course Giant’s TCX SL Advance is $7000, with Giant being the huge carbon company the are I can’t imagine why they haven’t come to the market with a middle of the road carbon CX.
With that being said, I’ll probably end up with the Ridley for a couple of seasons, the X-Fire is hella cheap, and I can wait until returning to the US to build up a bad ass CX.
For doubts on carbon, I think this vid speaks volumes about it’s strength. Pinkbike Visits The Santa Cruz Test Lab Video - YouTube
Sold… going to flatten both my Ksyriums in hopes of picking up a set of carbon tubulars in the pits. I’ll sport some Swissstop Yellow’s just in case. 
I sent Mr Fyxo a message to see if I could have a look at his Cronus, since it’s impossible to see one at a local shop.
For those that don’t know the Cronus, it’s here… Cronus CX - Trek Bicycle
Local Australian pricing for the Pro is $3800 (US Price $3100), I don’t even want to know what the Ultimate costs here, but it’s $3800 in the US.
have you tried cecil walker in the city? i know for a fact that one of their staff has one, and id suspect they might have more in stock.
You want to check Competitive Cyclist, they are having a Ridley frame/complete sale at the moment.
Several points:
Warranty decisions on treks are made by the trek warranty manager in canberra, not a local shop or sales representative. Trek are incredibly generous, and i would be surprised if your friend’s issue was not a non-warrantable situation. The average time for a warranty decision to be made is about 2 hours from the time the correct forms are submitted. The forms do not ask if the bike has been raced or crashed, nor details that other companies often ask such as rider weight or riding style.
The chronus will be available frrom september. Trek dealers can order them for the start of the 2013 model year, although at this stage they are not going to be an australian model. However, there has been fairly big demand for the bikes and there is talk to add them as a regular model for my2013.
That ‘camo’ paint is badass