copy n pasted from a post I made in December about the same subject
CX bike sounds like the ticket. Biggest factor other then material is do you WANT fender mounts or don't care? If you don't care then more things open up. I looked at disc brakes only options and 135mm rear spacing and this was the list that had the N. American Cross Geo, aka lower bottom bracket like a roadie for better high speed handling vs say that of a Ridley or Redline.
Kona Jake the Snake - nice budget bike at 1600 with 105's or frameset for $600 from Bikeman
Specialized Crux - Mid range, hard to find in stock, alum is $2k and carbon is $3k
Fuji Altamira - I ended up w/ this, full SRAM Force, BB7s and tapered fork and complete carbon for $2100 (new model is $2800) Geo is close to my super6 on paper and under me
Felt FX5/65 - FX5 is $2400 w/ rival, full carbon and just came into stock couple weeks ago, FX65 is alum frame same front carbon fork and Apex group
Ibis Hakkalugi - Would blow the budget here, $1800 for frameset but comes with a $550 Enve fork. Wanted this one BAD!!! But couldn't justify the build up cost.
Kona Rove Steel - complete steel w/ APEX for $1600 or frameset from bikeman.com for $550 (i'd ditch the steel fork cuz it's ugly as hell)
Kona Rove Ti Frame - another budget blower, Ti frame is $2k + headset and fork. Looks awesome and can hold fat tires. Drooled over this frameset and looks but outta budget
Salsa Warbird Alum - Complete at $1700-2200 w/ Tiagra. Frameset are $900-1200 w/ that $550 enve fork. Hear good things about this, more for a gravel racer not really a CX racer. So in between a road bike and CX bike.
Salsa Warbird Ti - Complete is about $4k or frameset w/ enve fork for $2500
Focus Mares AX1 - 2014 models will be here in Jan/Feb where they are moving to disc brakes. Alum frame, tapered carbon fork will be new for them, comes w/ Hyrdro rival for $2200 in rapha colors looks awesome
NINER RLT- Alum w/ carbon fork, best transformer of them all. Fender mounts, PF30 bb can be run in singlespeed mode, niner carbon forks are strong and hell and RLT is built to those standards. Frameset @ $1100, Complete 105 bike with crap wheel and bb5 brakes cost $2000, Hydro Rival version w/ Ironcross wheels will set you back $3k, wheels are $650 of that price. The bad, rumors from my buddy that is buyer for a bike shop says ALL the prepaid/preordered sales are larger then the shipment coming in Feb. Second orders might be in March or wait for fall outs. Falls into the same class in my mind as the warbird. Not a CX racer, more gravel racer but not road bike fast.
Opinion of all these bikes:
It's bad enough that CX bikes are between road bikes and hard tail 29er XC bike but to be in between of between this range is too much for me to swing the warbird or RLT though I'm sure they would be nice. Touring bike falls into the between of between. Unless you plan to tour, I'd hate to pedal that geo everyday.