ti cyclocross recommendations (105/ultegra and no disks)
 

hi all,

used to be on the forum ages ago and got super advice. i have a 54 cm ti javelin road bike that i bought used off a local racer and have been really enjoying it. however it is time to branch out. i tried a karate monkey 29er and it is just not the bike for me so i am selling it.

any chance anyone can help me figure out what kind of frame i should be looking at? i'm trying to keep it simple so no disk brakes and probably 105 or ultegra (which is on my javelin) component set. i'd also be happy to get some advice on what i should be looking at bike-wise as i just sort of settled on a cyclocross bike after talking to a couple of bike shops here in town.

this seems to make a lot of sense as i like to mash pedals and i'd like to get off road but likely will not be doing a lot of mountain biking. so the whole fat tire front shock thing was wasted on me. i would like to throw it in the truck and go on a road trip though and the disk brakes on the karate monkey were more trouble than they were worth.

thanks in advance for any advice. would like to keep it under 12 bills and ideally a lot less than that especially if i can find a deal used.

THANKS

jon

if by "off road" you mean gravel/dirt road, unpaved (but relatively smooth) trails, a cyclocross bike might fit the bill, as well as the various "gravel"/"adventure" bikes that typically take even wider tires.

The problem you might run into is wanting a titanium frame in the $1200 range (you'd definitely need to go used for a complete bike at that price) and non-disc brakes. Most cross/gravel/adventure bikes have been disc for a few years now. Motobecane (bikes direct) has a ti framed cross bike (fantom cross ti) that starts around $1400 new, but if you look around you might be able to find someone trying to unload a few year old one, from back when the bike had cantilever brakes.

I would settle for no disc brakes.