Eastway CX 2.0 cyclo-cross bike

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't all Sram/Shimano cassettes of a given speed (11 speed XX1/XTR excepted) interchangeable?

Yeah, as others have said, this is spot on for commuting. This is especially true for people like me who vary their routes to go on or off-road on a frequent basis. I now have multiple sets of wheels shod with different rubber depending on what I fancy riding. I also have switched all my bikes to CX as I find them more comfortable and they help my back. I'm our club&s current hill climb champ too, so CX bikes are not too slouchy!

I took this bike out for a test and was immediately convinced. The only thing now is I have to wait a week before I can pick it up

I thought this looked like a really nice bike. Low front end, plenty of clearance, good brakes and proper provision for mudguards. A pair of 25 or 28mm kevlar belted tyres and you could ride that to work every day and never have to clean it!

I ride a do-it-all bike because my rides are do-it-all rides.
Maybe that's a valid reason for making that kind of bikes?

I recently succumbed to buying one (the Verenti Substance) after a rubbish attempt to CX my winter hack. Been great fun in the few rides I have done so far, mostly off-road. Not the lightest bike, but seems to be alright speed wise when I do venture on road. My road bike is probably not going to get much of a look in over the coming months. Poor thing.

CX bikes like this are perfect for the commuter!! I've been using a Defy 3 since 2010 to commute on and it has been great. I decided I wanted something more rugged (to take advantage of some of the offroad routes to and from work) but still quick. I bought a Giant TCX SLR 2 and it's bloody ace!! Discs are sooo much better for those emergency dog walker incidents on cycle paths and in the wet? Well there's no more twitchy bum lack of brake power for meeeee. I can also just chip offthe road and hit a bridleway if I feel like it. I wish I had got one sooner!!!

Yep, me too. I have a Kinesis 4t with an disc on the front and use it for... commuting, touring, training on canal paths and back roads, shorter Audaxs (too rigid with fast tyres for looooong rides) and mucking about with family. I have other bikes - suss MTB and carbon fast road bike, but this kind of bike is great when out and out speed doesn't matter. Will last for ages too. I admit I have two sets of wheels for it though

I own and commute most days on a Merida Cyclocross 4 - I cannot recommend a cyclocross bike highly enough if you are in the market for just the one bike that does (almost) everything.

It is amazingly practical and can be used for almost everything, plus having the slightly knobbly tyres opens up a whole range of different commuting routes..down quiet bridle paths, through woods etc, it really is great to escape the traffic which would prove impossible on a road bike.

It is so practical - mudguard fitment serves a purpose, child seat and rack goes on when required, it really is a jack of all trades but does each job extremely well. It is no slouch on the road and is equally at home off road.

Granted you may not wish to race on something at this level but for the cycle to work scheme a cyclocross bike must surely be up there.

why would someone buy a jack of all trades bike when they could buy two or more bikes? Some - many - people cannot afford nor justify - or indeed want multiple bikes and something like this a good compromise.

In response to surly-by-name's initial question:

I've been riding for c.18 years and have not had only 1 bike for about 17 years.

I've just sold down a touring bike and a road bike to make way for a single all-rounder. I went for a Whyte Suffolk, an "all-rounder" with a bit more of a road rather than a CX bias, with disc brakes and in the same sort of price category. It will be used mostly on the road, will take a light rack load and has clearance for some fairly large tyres (35mm should be fine without mudguards).

I'm pleased to have just one road-ish bike again, because it means I can look after it properly, do things like regular cable changes, keep it in brake pads, really look after it and be constantly riding the bike I'm used to. That's something of an advantage. I can live with the (obvious, material) drawbacks to having no specialist bikes for the moment.

Also, you can buy a Planext X Kaffenback for £799. The K'back is steel and at that price comes with Tiagra, but given the XLS with 105 comes in at £999 [so you could buy the lighter, CX specific XLS cheaper than the Eastway, although it doesn't have rack or pannier mounts and so accept it's not really comparable], I suspect the good folk at PX would do you a 105 equipped K'back for somewhere in between - call it £899 for argument's sake? The K'back is steel and so you'd presume it was heavier - but less than you'd think, at least according to PX website (which can be presumed to be no less accurate that Fisher's claimed weight for Eastway). With Tiagra, K'back comes in at 11.32kgs vs the 10.83kgs of the Eastway. Swapping to 105 will save some weight - I'd like to be able to say how much but my googling skills have let me down. Maybe 150grams? Anyway, would result in both bikes coming in around 11kgs (rounding to the nearest whole kilogram), so its not like you are ever going to go anywhere particularly quickly (other than freefall). And the K'back has the BB7s rather than the 5s. If it's all about the utility, why spend an extra £300/£350?

Nice to see this article penned by the late Steve Worland.
Not too sure I could justify the spend on a jack of all trades, much like surly_by_name's response...but I'm sure there are many others that would see this as their perfect 'gad about' bike...
Looks decent quality though...
...and the price seems to have magically shrunk to £999 since I replied...so that now makes my statement about the price slightly 'bunk'

Am I going mad? i thught it was £1250, but it seems to be £999 which is much more competitive so ignore my last comment.

.....back to £1250 now? I'm confused!

I think 'all rounders' are very sensible too. I built up my cross bike to go riding through woods and trails with the kids, and then when they started cyclocross racing I just used that bike and gave racing a go too.

I can't see any reason why you couldn't race the Eastway. In my experience there is little carrying in most cross races and the main variable is tyre selection and pressure (and fitness of course).

You might not win cross races on it, but most people operating at that level have two cross bikes, multiple wheel options, a van to transport the bikes, a pressure washer for cleaning them in situ, a pit helper etc etc!

Having said all that my cross bike cost me about £500 plus bits from the garage, so perhaps £1250 is a lot for an all rounder?

Let me preface what follows with this: I love bikes. Pretty much all bikes.

But what is the point of this bike? Or perhaps - who are they planning on selling this bike to? It looks like a very handy - although not especially competitively priced - all rounder. But who buys an all rounder? In my experience (of me and numerous friends and acquaintances), once you get past one bike, you tend to be looking for bikes that are specialized - like a cross bike (you could use this Eastway as a "fun" cross bike to try cross racing but it is at least 3 component modifications away from being a bike you would race cross on week in/week out) or a mountain bike or a proper tourer. Not a bike that is fair-to-middling at any of these disciplines. While the Eastway is pretty much all the bike any of us will ever need, I suspect very few of us will ever buy one.