Originally Posted by
12strings
Yesterday and today I test rode a Surly cross check, and a Specialized divergence (tiagra). Here's my plus/minus of each, but to give away the ending, The cross check was just way more fun to ride...
Cross Check:
+not as heavy as it looks
+coming from a road bike, I expected it to be sluggish, but it wasn't...took right off.
+very stable feeling.
+bigger tires
-bar end shifters
-ergo bars, which puts the cable from the bar end shifter in an odd place.
Diverge:
+2016 tiagra with hidden shift cables...very nice shifting...I'm impressed with shimano.
-ugly orange
-smaller tires, and only takes up to 35mm tires.
-Mechanical disk brakes were making some rubbing noise...I know nothing about disk brakes, so it may have been normal, I don't know....I didn't like it.
-overall, the 30mm tires just didn't feel that much different from a road bike...and I think specialized should have allowed for more tire clearance...the cross check, Giant revolt, and Jamis renegade all take at least 40, making them more versatile. Diverge just wasn't as fun.
I test rode a Warbird with Tiagra a few weeks ago, and I was surprised by how closely it felt to 105, which in turn is extremely close to Ultegra. There is very little difference between 105 and Ultegra now, unless you want Di2 or hydraulic brakes. I have been opposed to only getting Tiagra on expensive bikes (105 just is not expensive, so why penny pinch down to Tiagra on >$1500 bikes!!!), but it shifts well. The 105 is a little less amateurish in shifter build materials and not having the gear dial, etc.
The brakes were likely not aligned when the bike was assembled. This can be a real annoyance to get just right, but easily fixable. The bike should have felt like it had drag or really slow tires, unless it was absolutely grinding, then you would really notice.