Focus Mares Comp

The 2010 Tricross only has a 2300 drivetrain, which is an eight speed cassette as opposed to the Tiagra's 9. It's decent kit but the Focus spec is quite a lot better. the alloy fork does mark the Mares down but for the price difference between them you can (almost) get a Kinesis Crosslight Pro fork, which is an excellent bit of kit if you're looking to upgrade

Dave, Thanks for the advice. I'm still mulling it over as now I've found a local shop selling the tricross at £630 which puts it in the same price range.

consider also what you want to use the bike for, with its triple chainset, cankle fork and more relaxed stance the Spec. will be more, shall we say, versatile, the Focus has a more racey stance, you can probably guess that by its looks, although they both have mudguard/rack mounts for that kind of thing

if it was me i'd go for the Focus because it's better specced and i'm a racey kinda guy

Thanks VJ. I'm going to be using it for 'mixed surface' commuting but also winter road riding at the weekend.
I'm thinking of investing is some road wheels so come friday night I switch the cross wheels with the road wheels and back again on Sunday night. The plan is to then have a look at doing a first Cross event next winter. I think the Specialized is more suited to this but I'm being won over by the value of the Focus (even though it only has mudguard eyes and not rack (and I'll be using a rack for commuting).
Thanks for the advice and I've decided; I'm going for the Focus.. . I think!

i'd say that the Focus is more suited to the 'road riding' aspect with 'cross racing' later, although the gap on the 50/34 chainset might be a bit of pain, after changing between front rings it can lead to frantic rear shifts to keep a similar cadence going, whereas the triple on the Spec. might be one chainring too many for what you need.

i've ridden both a Focus (Cross Expert) and a Spec. (Singlecross), the Focus handled almost like a road bike but with knobbly tyres and was definitely knife sharp off-road, the Spec. was more manageable, almost boring in comparison

Thanks again for the advice. I plumped for the Focus in the end and your recent comments make me glad I did as it will be primarily used on road - albeit the heavily pot holed ones we currently have!

Yay! Enjoy.

Arrived today - and its got rack mounts front and back! had a quick spin but will have to wait til tomorrow as I'm off clay pigeon shooting now (stag party).
My only minor gripe with the bike is that it has some paint missing on the very top bit of the forks. I can't be bothered to send it back but I'll see if wiggle customer services send me something in sympathy.

i'd ask for some carbon forks on the cheap

I've just been out for a proper spin and whereas yesterday I liked it today I absolutely love it! It handles like a road bike but absorbs the bumps so much better and gives great confidence in the wet. Thanks again for your advice as this bike is exactly what I was after.

My only gripe is that while it has frame clearance for mudguards the mini-v's prevent you from fitting them - at least with the tyres that are fitted. I don't want to fit new tyres so I'm tossing up between cutting a slot in my mudguards to stop them fouling the v's or fitting cantilevers.

i'd be tempted to move to cantis (these are pretty good), more rim->pad clearance, better feel and mudguard friendly

They do look good and Wiggle gave me a £20 voucher for the paint fault so they're pretty much free
However being more of a roadie I've not much idea about fitting them. Would I need to get new cables- given the ones I have are obviously brand new and have the additional levers (which complicates things?)?

you shouldn't need new cables, you can trim the existing ones to fit and the canti brakes should come with a straddle-cable and a yolk, you will need to get a cable-hanger for the front and rear though