£1500-£2000 sportive disc bike

Ok – Rose Xeon CDX 4400

Ok – Rose Xeon CDX 4400 ordered on the 19th of August, ridden for the first time today on the 22nd of October so two months build and delivery time.  It was delayed twice due to parts availability (seemed genuine and got a voucher by way of compensation) then the bike was unfortunately delivered with the wrong crankset.  They put the correct crankset in the post which took a few more days to arrive, I fitted it last night and rode it today.

Bike is stock except for a carbon bar upgrade which I opted for as the road.cc review indicated the front end was a bit harsh.  No idea if this plan was sucessful (I haven’t ridden the alu bar to compare) but the front doesn’t feel harsh to me.  Also I’ve switced the rotors for Simano Freezas and the pads for Kool Stop Aeros (so heatsinks on rotors and pads).  Finally I went with the 11-32 cassette over my prior 11-28 (happy with this so far).

First impressions – noisy!!  The rear brake hose was loose inside the frame (it has internal routing as is lamentably standard these days), but a cable tie sorted that out once home and now she’s silent.  

Second impressions – light, very stiff laterally but very compliant (comfy).  Not entirely convinced by the saddle as yet but I am very picky with saddles, so will give it time obviously.

Brakes are excellent – the 160mm discs on this hydro setup feel as powerful as the 180mm disc with TRP Spyre cable disc brake on my former bike.  In fact the rear is if anything too powerful, I actually locked the rear in the dry by accident though now I’m accustomed to it I don’t think it’ll happen again.  

Felt very stable and comfy  descending but I kept it under 40mph for this ride (I usually chicken out at 50mph anyway).  Will increase it tomorrow.

Ride position is exactly as I expected based on my drawings using my current bike and Rose’s frame data – I was hoping a 110mm stem would put the bar in the right place for me and it did.  Might be a fraction high but there are several spacers I can remove and play with.

Gears and shifting felt very good.  My old bike was Rival 10 speed – this Force 11 speed feels much better on the front mech (noticably lighter action) and pretty much identical on the rear mech, so first-equal the best rear shifting I’ve ever used (I’ve tried shimano up to DA but not SRAM Red).  I wasn’t expecting any improvement in shifting so this is a pleasent surprise.

One interesting note – Rose had set the upper limit on the rear mech slightly too low so when I was already in the lowest gear at the back but tried to shift to a lower one it allowed me to push the release but didn’t let me push the lever further to cancel it, hence when I wanted an easier gear but actually end up with a harder one!  Dialing out the upper limit a fraction solved this and I now get the SRAM ‘click CLUNK’ when trying to shift to a larger cog when already on the largest and it stays on that cog.  Perhaps this is why some reviews seem to think this is a SRAM fault – is everyone riding round on maladjusted SRAM groupsets?

And finally – got a PB up Caerphilly mountain when I didn’t feel like I was particularly trying so something must have been good!

Thanks for the assist everyone!

DELAY – build date has been
DELAY – build date has been put back to 28th September due to unavailability of parts. 🙁

4-8 weeks they said before
4-8 weeks they said before ordering. Haven’t had a time estimate since ordering so far.

sergius wrote:Define buzzy.

sergius wrote:

Define buzzy. I’ve two carbon bikes of which the Rose Xeon CDX is one – I don’t particularly feel any more vibrations on the Rose when compared to my Cube (Agree GTC). The steering is a little more lively on the Rose than the Cube, but that makes it more fun to ride for me.

I’m of the opinion that unless you ride and review multiple bikes frequently, a lot of these handling characteristics that are brought up are indistinguishable to most of us mortals.

The Rose has a light, stiff frame and is quicker than my Cube.

You will have a 2-3 month wait for the bike however, Rose have good prices and great customisation – but long lead times.

Well I’m going from aluminium to carbon so I’m guessing it’ll feel smooth to me either way. Figured I could opt for the carbon bars, saves nearly a hundred grams and supposedly carbon bars are slightly more comfy. Not much over budget to add on.

Looks like I’m biting the bullet with the CDX 4400 then…. 😀

paulrattew wrote:I’ve got the

paulrattew wrote:

I’ve got the ultegra version, and it really is a great bike.

I’m looking very seriously at the CDX with SRAM Force. The only issue I can see from online reviews is that they found the front to be overly ‘buzzy’ ie letting a lot of vibration through for an endurance bike (which is arguably subjective). Have you found that with yours? Also, how did you find Rose on service and delivery time?

paulrattew wrote:Rose Xeon

paulrattew wrote:

Rose Xeon CDX

I’ve got the ultegra version, and it really is a great bike. You can customise the set-up to get the components you want, although there are more options with Shimano in relation to chainsets. It’s also considerably lighter than almost any other disc bike at this price point – mine is comfortably under 8 kilos.

Having ridden both SRAM and Shimano hyraulic disc systems I just think that Shimano’s works a lot better. If you prefer SRAM’s doubletap shifting though then i can still happily recommend their hydro – not quite as good as shimano’s but still excellent

Ding dong, hello beautiful…. think we could have a winner here. Force, thru axles, seriously light….