Upgrades to a Genesis Croix de Fer

Interesting thread,

We have two 725 Croix de Fe's, 

My wife's is standard, apart from a more forgiving transmission, (MTB triple through to XT rear mech and wider spaced block.)

Mine is a much upgraded (by it's original owner) with hope hubbed wheels..and other hope bearings..(headset and BB)

I've swopped the original compact for an MTB (24/36) double, as I pull a Bob Yak with the shopping on it,

and original brake calipers for a later version.

The other thing I had to swop was to re-spoke the Hope built wheels with brass nipples, as the rear in particular snapped the alloy nipples with monotenous regularlity, (combination; vibration, salt and the additional weight of the trailer). The brass replacements have been faultless..

However I aspire to a set of winter wheels, with a hub dynamo...and that would be my first choice upgrade in your position..

Also with the forks there is choices out there. Mine were from kinesis or Cotic, can't remember now. Just took a couple of phone calls to retailers and that was it sorted.

I did a lot of riding on my cosine wheels with zero maintenance issues. This included muddy cyclocross rides, gentle mtb trails, road use and also commuting and leaving overnight in all weathers. For the price they are very good value for money. From memory they are about 600 grams lighter than the Alex rims. I'm only 68kgs mind.
I wouldn't get the cdf again, but something along those lines. Lots of choice in this category now.

. . wrote:

ktache wrote:

Being able to swap wheels rather than having to change tyres would be a dream for me.

Unless you are very lucky, you'll still need to realign the calipers each time you swap.  Since I switched to my winter wheels, I've realigned them twice and still get some binding when the brakes are hot.  Grr...

My road bike and cyclocross bike are both disc equipped, plus I have another set of wheels that is used in both. One set is centrelock, and the others are six bolt fixing. I used very thin shim washers (0.2mm) to fine tune the position of the rotors on the six bolt hubs so they all match perfectly. I can now swap between all the wheels without issue. Bit of a faff but worth it. Not sure if there is any way to achieve this if both sets of hubs are centrelock. Don't know how you'd fine tune the rotor position, but in my case I could make the 6-bolts match the centrelock.

cdean wrote:

So far I think I'm sold on the Hunt 4 Seasons (although I can't make my mind up between the road and gravel variants) but thought I'd see whether anyone had any better ideas

FWIW my centrelock wheels mentioned above are Hunt 4-Season Disc wheels and have given me fantastic service since April last year. They've done lots of road miles, some CX racing, some tough gravel rides/sportives and even a beach race on my MTB. I have been very happy with them, and definitely feel a difference when they are fitted instead of the other (heavier) wheels I own. One of my friends bought the gravel version earlier this year. He's also very happy and they look as though they should be even more robust than mine. Depends how much abuse you plan on metering out!

I would suggest rather than getting the Schwalbe Durano 28mm it may be worth getting the Vittoria Voyager Hyper 35mm. The rolling resistance is much better (Durano 24.7 @60psi vs. Hyper 17.7 @60psi) and because they are 35s they should be a lot more comfortable and an easier transision from your winter 35s.

Also, PlanetX currently have the Vittoria Voyager Hyper at only £15 each
http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/TYVIVOHY/vittoria-voyager-hyper-folding-tyre

I had the 2014 Genesis CDF, I didn't want to spend a fortune on it as was my commuter / winter bike. I upgraded the wheels, I just put on a cheap but light set of cosine from wiggle, £180, decent wheels for the price imo.

I don't know about the 2105 Croix, but if yours has a steel/cro-mo fork might be worth looking at a carbon fork upgrade - I did this, my view was that £150 on a lighter carbon fork and £180 on 500gram wheels would be a better investment that the Hunt or Kinesis wheels.

http://www.londonbicycleworkshop.com/94111/products/genesis-croix-de-fer-disc-carbon-fork-2016-black.aspx

And then stick some decent tyres on as well, for off road I used Bontrager CX3 Tubeless. These are 33c, for on road I use Bontrager All Weather 32's. During the winter I would leave the knobblies on, only swapping over to the all weather tyres in late spring.

I sold my CDF earlier this year and ahem "upgraded" to a lighter higher spec bike. I wanted hydraulic brakes and the cost of putting new hydraulic brakes and groupset was almost as much as my new bike cost me. But I really miss the bike and will possibly look at getting another one in the new year. My new bike is considerably lighter and the brakes are significantly better, but its just as nice to ride.

If you're going to upgrade anything, lighter wheels will make the biggest difference. I have a 2015 Genesis Equilbrium Ti Disc. I swapped out the stock Aksiums for some Superstar Components handbuilts: 32 hole  Icon Ultra hubs laced to Stans No Tubes ZTR Grail rims shod with  Schwalbe One Pro Tubeless 28s. They roll really well and the ride is peerless. Around £250 the pair from memory, but they often have offers http://www.superstarcomponents.com/en/shop/road/wheels-custom-road/

As I understand it, a lot of manufacturers lower the spec on the wheels to bring it down to a price point.  Everyone knows about groupsets, so people notice when that  has been downgraded.

As you're talking about disc brakes, the rims are not going to wear out, which is normally the perfect time to upgrade, but if you can afford it go for it.  Especially if you can set everything up the same with spare disks and casette.  Being able to swap wheels rather than having to change tyres would be a dream for me.

Have you changed the points of contacts yet?  Handlebar tape/grips, saddle and pedals make the biggest difference, for me, and are relatively cheap.  But anything you upgrade will make it more yours, and even if it might not make that much difference in performance, it will feel like it does.

If you're getting into swapping wheels regularly you'll have a lot less hassle if you use the same spec cassette on both. Are you running Tiagra or 105? Given the miles you've done consider replacing your chain and cassette before running the new cassette, its a good idea to keep drivetrain wear levels similar - reduces shifting problems and general wear and tear on the drivetrain.

What a good buy Mr Dean, you have chosen well for your only bike.  You may have guessed I too have a Croix, although a couple of years older.  

As time has gone by I have upgraded almost everything except, funnily enough, the wheels.  I figure the bike is always going to be heavy, it will always have relaxed geometry and it will always be slow on the hills.  You could put £1500-worth of carbon hoops on her but it won't alter her fundamental characterisics, the reason you spent the money in the first place.  

I've swapped things for comfort - like the new saddle, tyres and bar tape - and ergonomics - a full 105 groupset with new Spyre brakes.  But I don't worry about speed or weight, you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

But hey, it's your bike and your money.

I have the DT Swiss RR21 Dicut DB wheels referred to by Ogi above  on my Jamis Renegade.  I think they work really well for road use with 28mm Schwalbe Ones (run tubeless).  I have 15mm and 12mm thru axles but they came with a full set of adaptors.  The build quality appears to be excellent.

My offroad set up for the same bike is American Classic MTB Race 29 Tubeless, run with 40mm Schwalbe G-ones.  They are very very wide and are brilliant offroad with these tyres (pretty good on it too).  Not sure whether they would work with your dropouts though?  

I considered various Hunt wheels, but in the end went for the above for their low weight (both less than 1500g) with relatively high rider weight limits (I weigh 85kgs but wanted some scope to load the bike up with packs/panniers etc. ) Plus I wanted to get the best wheels I could afford.  

I've got Hunts on both my bikes and couldn't be more pleased. The fact that full support and spares are UK based is also very reassuring.

Hi,

I like the way you think:). I have Genesis Equilibrium Disc model (2015) and absolutely love it. I also like Hunt Wheels and I would def. suggest you to go for it. Personally, I still haven't bit the bullet yet, but certainly will (Hunt Aero disc model - 1,470g) at some point. Occasionally, I run into DT Swiss RR21 Dicut DB wheels and some online deals which throw me at some dilemmas. They are mighty impressive set of wheels, I would say better than Hunts (as it has DT240s internals and possibly better spokes), but they run around 500ish GBP. 

You can go for Novatec or Kinesis, but I still think Hunt hits that magical sweetspot (price, quality of the spokes, hubs etc.). Also, I spoke to a lot of guys who have them. Only words of praise, and very rarely any problems.