bike $400 availabler in my area. I have not seen it yet, but think it should fit me. i am looking for ageneral biek to ride on the road andd some trails. my longest rides will be 80-90 miles, and on average 1000-1500 per yearr.

any one have one of these bikes? what do you think of them.

I have the 2001 XO1 & it's a great bike as far as I am concerned. It can take quite a bit of abuse. In my 1st cx season, I think I crashed heavily at least twice at every race. The upside about that was that I got into the season fairly late & got in only 3 races. I must admit that the stock Aurora Matrix front wheel did not survive my 1st season & was replaced by a MA3 rim/Deore XT hub setup (tough as nails). On average, I commute about 3,000km/yr & "race" duathlons in summer, all on the same bike with just a change of wheels. I have a second set with road tires mounted.
I got mine on ebay for $500 & it was Ultegra 8spd equipped!

how comfortable is it for long rides: you commute a bit mjore than i do, though i plan to step that up.
my moniker refers tot he reason i stopped using a road bike, but i miss it and want to go back.

thanks

bk

My longest ride was 75km. I have never done a metric century but could have easily done so & would have been none worse for wear. For the most part, I was running with cx tires & about 75-80psi, just enough to take the edge off the bad roads around here & for hopping on/off sidewalks.
Perhaps a change of saddles might add to the level of comfort as well, for short rides/commutes, I use a Bontrager RaceLite saddle which came with the bike & for long rides, I swap to a Selle Italia XO (the one with the hole in it). I have problematic knees & to help that, I changed the crank to a FSA 50/34 compact, the aluminum one, which makes a huge difference when I am in the small chainring. I also change the big chainring to a 46T for cyclocross.
Hope this helps! There are some pics of the bike on my webpage, if you are curious. I believe the 2000 version was the gold coloured one & 2001 version is blue.

I have one that I race on during cross season and have had it set up as a commuter in the past. It is a nice compact stiff frame. When I've got it set up to commute on (Fenders, road tires...) and the weather is bad, I have taken it on some club rides up to 40 miles and have had no comfort problems.

nate

I've heard that they don't handle very well. "They handle like pigs, which is why people are always selling them," was what a friend said. My advice is ride it and see for yourself.