Carrrera Crixus CX bike, opinions?

[jamiebae]

http://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/road-bikes/c...

So it appears to be a lightly off-roadified TDF and is currently £300 but has been £250 and maybe will be again some time before Christmas.

I want a bike to ride over the Christmas break, and this looks like it should do the job - I want to ride mainly on roads but the ability to do a little bit of off road would be nice in case I fancy it. I guess it's heavy for a road bike, but light compared to a cheap MTB, and the bits don't look too bad with the exception of the brakes, and probably the wheels too.

For under £300 I don't see a better option, this will be bike number 4 and only get ridden a few times a year so I don't want to start budget creep really. The alternative is to bring another bike with me (I have a roadie I could bring and leave in England) but I'm not sure there's room in the car. (Also n+1).

Has anyone ridden or looked at one? Are they totally ghastly?

[jamiebae]

There appears to be another version, identical bar the more rustic looking colour scheme.

http://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/road-bikes/c...

[Barchettaman]

Looks fine. Claris is a proper groupset. Cantilever brakes so no mech disc set-up headaches (Avid 5s are harder to adjust than Avid 7s).

At that price I would suggest you go for it.

[jamiebae]

That was my thinking, it doesn't look totally awful and the main issue with the old TDF (I had one for a few weeks which I bought to nick some parts off before selling it on) was the weight, and the utterly terrible tyres. On a CX bike the weight isn't going to be such a big deal, and if I need to skip the tyres it's not the end of the world.

Most of my riding now is done on a 12ish kg steel framed Genesis Day-One with Alfine gears so I think it should be OK. I'm going to try and get my Genesis Volant in the car somehow but at least I have a plan B if I can't make it work.

[jamiebae]

So it turns out the back of an RR Evoque is more spacious than I thought, so I've brought a proper bike with me and can save my next n+1 for something nicer instead. I fancy building up a custom Genesis Croix de Fer but I'm not sure where that'd fit alongside the Day-One and an alu roadie on 25c tyres...