XRL Cross build complete!
 

So.... I just finished my cross build, whew! Well, it's built more like a road bike than anything so thought I'd post it here for you lovely people to ogle.

I wanted a foul weather commuter / training bike and thought a cross bike would be nice, since I was selling my 27lb MTB. I do almost exclusively road riding these days, but being able to hit the trails is still useful, plus I thought it might be fun to enter some cross races soon, whereupon I'll probably dorkify it by flipping the stem up. I went for this frame because it was cheap and almost all the geometry is uncannily similar to my road bike (Blue RC4), except for long chainstays (+3cm).

It came in way lighter than I'd expected, at just over 19lb. Ultegra/105 mix, Oryx cantis, and AC hurricanes. SKS fenders are coming, and as it gets colder, I'll put cross slicks on it. A weirdness with the fork is that it has really fat arms, so when unsprung the brakes barely clear the road tire. I think I'd have trouble getting a 35c tire out of the dropouts for a quick change. Rear dropouts are way easier to use than the Blue, which has a screwed up derailleur hanger. Total cost was about $1K with pedals and including what I got for the MTB. Building up from parts is not cheap!

I took it for a 15mi spin. The ride is a little dead, but I hope it'll grow on me. I don't seem to go much slower on it, but climbs feel more painful probably because the bike is less nimble. The extra 3cm in the tail feels a little like I'm dragging a lead weight around on the back on accelerations. The bars I had in my bin might have a little to do with it since they're 1cm too wide (43cm) and stem 1cm too short, so I'm thinking I might change them out. Anyway, maybe feeling like I'm going slow will make me work harder...
:p

http://penelope.dhs.org/%7Elindsey/2007.09.21_xrlx.jpg

That is one sweet bike! I love the look of that frame! Care if I ask how much it ran ya?
~Nick

Is the top tube really as pointy as it looks? Otherwise, it's a sweet build.

Thanks! The frame cost me $225 after 10% off at Performance. They had a really good deal on it about a month and a half ago. With the 20% off sale ending today you can get it for $240 before tax. I usually don't like the Scattante look but this one I think has a better color scheme than most of their bikes. The beige is going to be tough to keep clean, but it's gonna be a rain bike so whatever. I'll just hose it down in the yard every week or so. They make it in black too which might be better for the rain but I liked beige better.

Yeah, the top tube and down tube are triangular with pointy side inside the triangle. The edges are pretty rounded, but I dunno if it's the best cross frame out there because of this. I wonder if anyone around here has experience racing it or if people just buy it for touring/commuting.

-Chris

I've been looking at doing the exact same build as you did there - even the same color frame. I want a "budget" (yeah, right!) commuter and/or cross bike, but would probably even settle for just a 105 mix and even more budget-minded wheels. Looks good!

Looks great!

thats a comfy garage door

Yeah, I was intending to build a heavier bike to make training more effective but it's impossible to resist the crazy end-of-season Ultegra prices... "only $15 more" than 105 adds up to a lot in the end with all the parts... I'm sure this has been said before, but if I had to do it all over I'd go for one of the $1K Motobecanes with all Ultegra and WCS everything, switch everything over to the cross frame, add the Oryx's and Arione, then sell off the extras.

And of course the build could have certainly been cheaper with different wheels. The Hurricanes came off my road bike which now has 420's. The former are a really strong light wheel, great for a beating, though I'm still thinking I might swap them for my wife's Open Pros to add weight. That'd drop more than 350g off her bike and make her 0.6% happier on climbs.

-Chris


Can't help it, I'm so OCP my garage door matches my bike. :D

hahah nice lookin bike though

Man I came so close to doing that over and over... I have a full bike in need of a frame, and I want to build it up for my girl, so I'm thinking I'll do the build you just did. Well, the frame, that is. Let me ask this... I can use 105 brakes, correct? I am pretty sure all the other road bike parts will work fine, but I want to be sure it has the holes to mount those brakes.

Thanks! that's a very pretty bike, and a great picture of it, too.

Thanks for the compliments. It's my first build from scratch, so I'm pretty proud of it. The frame does have the holes in the right places for caliper brakes, but I'm not sure if the hole in the back of the fork will fit the brake retention nut (might be too small). I'll have to check when I get home. It'll also look weird having brake bosses sticking out without brakes on them... If your build is going to use road tires exclusively, maybe take a look at the XRL Comp? A little cheaper, same weight, different fork, tighter wheelbase, otherwise very similar frame.

-Chris

Had actually originally considered this solely, but the reasons you listed are actually the reasons I'd want the Cross, since it's for my girl, a new bike rider. The longer wheelbase, different fork (bigger rake), and COLOR are better for her. She won't care about the looks of the bosses.