The Specialized Tricross.... First impressions

Knifey_Spooney

So my new bike arrived last night and I did my first commute on it this morning. I must admit they're nice bikes, particularly at that price. I've a few small issues but nothing that can't be fixed for a small bit of cash.

The 42/18 Gear ratio isn't the best for commuting I find myself spinning out with regularity. It's easily changed though and I ordered a 16t Rear sprocket with it so I can adjust as needed. I've only ever put on a fixed sprocket, how long is it likely to take me to change a Freewheel? Or am I better off taking it to my local shop?

The tires aren't the greatest in the world TBH, they'll do for the time being but I'll probably change them soon enough.

The brake blocks are crap and will need replacing very soon.

The 4 brake levers are unnecessary for me personally, they're not easy to take off though which is annoying. Also the cable on my rear brake appears set up slightly wrong, on of the levers has loads of give in it before it'll stop the wheel, and the other one is extremely tight and over-responsive, I'm going to have to dismantle it this weekend I think.

Other than these small hiccups I'd recommend the Tricross to anyone looking for a commuter, assuming you don't have any really serious hills.

blorg

You are right that the gear ratio is not ideal for commuting, I am going for a 15t fixed sprocket myself but 16t would be close. I have a spare 16t at the moment as Pearson included the wrong size. Not sure if you are asking about a fixed sprocket or a freewheel? You can rotafix on a fixed sprocket, while a freewheel is the easiest thing to fit, you just thread it on and it will tighten from your pedalling action. Removing requires a specific tool though.

The tyres are designed for off-road so you would be better with slicks for on-road - I am putting on Gatorskins myself.

The brakes are fine, you must have them set up wrong. Actually even more than fine, damn good for wide clearance brakes used with drop levers. I have the same brakes on my tourer and have done thousands of km on them without issue. I can skid the back wheel from back braking and lift it from front braking very easily.

Did you get the bike from Pearsons? In which case I presume you had to thread the brake cables yourself? It sounds as if you just have the cable tension slightly off. Unfortunately there are no barrel adjusters so you just have to get it right when clamping the cable. I know a cyclocross guy in German who sells V brake noodles with barrel adjusters (I have them on my tourer) but postage is €15- if there were a few tricross owners interested we could go in on them.

I didn't think I'd like the extra brake levers but I came around to them very quickly, it's very nice to have a brake in that position on a fixie. They don't affect the operation of the main brake levers at all either.

Lumen

blorg wrote: »

I know a cyclocross guy in German who sells V brake noodles with barrel adjusters (I have them on my tourer) but postage is €15- if there were a few tricross owners interested we could go in on them.

I'm interested.

FWIW, I searched around and bought Vittoria Randonneur Cross Pro 32c tyres for normal duty. I haven't used them yet (was trying out the ice tyres on my first spin on Sunday).

Knifey_Spooney

I ordered a fixed sprocket for it as well, 16t I think. Not sure about my commute on a fixie, last time I did it, it wasn't a whole lot of fun, however that one has only one brake, and its too small for me, and it belongs to my GF, I do love it though (Genesis/Ridgeback flyer).

Besides the actual sprocket what else do I need to change the rear sprocket on it? I work all day but I could get someone to go into a shop for me today at some point.

I tried manually adjusting the rear brake, but even pulling it to full closed then tightening it still doesn't tighten one of the levers (One on the drop is fine). I dunno whats up with it since I threaded the front and its fine. I have to admit I've not dealt with V brakes in years.

I'd be tempted to buy new handlebars altogether for it TBH. I was never a big fan of drops on SS/Fixies in the first place. I like bullhorns.... Not great for long distances though.

blorg

If the brake lever on the drops is fine you probably have it set up right. The levers on the bars are not going to be as powerful as the ones in the drops AFAIK, they just sort of bend the cable outwards rather than pulling it directly.

Regarding the fixed sprocket, the hub is flip-flop so you can put this on the other side of the hub without having to remove the freewheel. If you want to remove the freewheel you would need a freewheel removal tool. To affix the fixed sprocket ideally you would have a chainwhip and track lockring tool but you can rotafix the sprocket on alternatively. In the absence of the right tool, some use a flat screwdriver and hammer to secure the lockring, you may also hack it on with a BB lockring tool.

blorg

@Lumen- noted regarding the brake noodles, I'll try to find out from him how much the actual noodles cost, he only gave me a shipping cost. Maybe we can interest a few more new Tricross owners, the adjustable noodles are really pretty essential for adjustment when the brake pads wear (normally with V-brakes the barrel adjuster is on the flat bar lever but drop levers lack this.)

Knifey_Spooney

Cheers for that, I've never put on or removed a Freewheel so I wasn't sure how easy/hard it was really going to be. I think I'll bring it to a shop and get them to do it for me this weekend.

I've put a fixed on a flip-flop before but it took ages and was a pain in the hole to get right so I think maybe Ill just get the shop to do that too TBH.

Knifey_Spooney

blorg wrote: »

@Lumen- noted regarding the brake noodles, I'll try to find out from him how much the actual noodles cost, he only gave me a shipping cost. Maybe we can interest a few more new Tricross owners, the adjustable noodles are really pretty essential for adjustment when the brake pads wear (normally with V-brakes the barrel adjuster is on the flat bar lever but drop levers lack this.)

Sorry forgot to reply to you, ill take some too if your ordering.

Actually another question about the levers, whats the push through button on the drops for? It appears to give more/less tension on the brake cable but is seems like an odd way of going about it. Was hoping someone could clarify.....

blorg

Knifey_Spooney wrote: »

Sorry forgot to reply to you, ill take some too if your ordering.

Actually another question about the levers, whats the push through button on the drops for? It appears to give more/less tension on the brake cable but is seems like an odd way of going about it. Was hoping someone could clarify.....

That's a quick release for the brakes, you only need it in the loose position when you are disconnecting the brake (e.g. to remove the wheel.) If the brakes are correctly set up you would generally find it very difficult to get the brake open otherwise without the release on the lever.

Knifey_Spooney

Ahhhhh makes sense, never though about that....

Lumen

blorg wrote: »

That's a quick release for the brakes, you only need it in the loose position when you are disconnecting the brake

So I don't need to deflate the tyres every time I switch wheels?

(smacks head against desk)

Chips Lovell

Lumen wrote: »

So I don't need to deflate the tyres every time I switch wheels?

(smacks head against desk)

You being a Campag man should have known that. Tut tut.

Ant

I bought a Tricross Single-speed in Cycleways a few months ago as my first non-mountain bike. It’s a great bike and I love cycling it. As I bought the bike for commuting rather than cyclocross, Cycleways were good enough to replace the tyres with slicks and while I was at it, I got them to install panniers and full length mud-guards before I picked it up.

I was considering buying from the UK but thought it was safer to buy locally. So far, I’ve been well impressed with the service from Cycleways and don’t mind having spent the extra cash.

I agree with the comments about the brakes but I like having the extra set of brake levers on the flat section of the bars. I’m also quite happy with the 42/18 gear ratio as it suits me for bringing supplies back from the supermarket. (I also don’t think I’d make it up Knockmaroon hill in Chapelizod if the ratio was any higher.)

I recently got a fixed sprocket put on the other side of the flip-flop hub. I didn’t have the appropriate tool to install it but Jarek (sp?) in Cycleways just charged me for the sprocket and installed it for free. I’m hugely enjoying the new experience of cycling without the benefit of a free-wheel. It’s a lot of fun but it does mean you have to be paying a lot more attention to the road and slowing down to a corner as you can only lean over so far without the pedals hitting off the road.

In summary, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this bike to anyone looking for a good commuting bike with a low maintenance overhead.

blorg wrote: »

That's a quick release for the brakes, you only need it in the loose position when you are disconnecting the brake (e.g. to remove the wheel.) If the brakes are correctly set up you would generally find it very difficult to get the brake open otherwise without the release on the lever.

Thanks a lot for that. Now that I know what that’s for it make changing brake blocks much easier!

blorg wrote: »

Unfortunately there are no barrel adjusters so you just have to get it right when clamping the cable. I know a cyclocross guy in German who sells V brake noodles with barrel adjusters (I have them on my tourer) but postage is €15- if there were a few tricross owners interested we could go in on them.

I’d be really interested in this. So far, that looks like Knifey_Spooney, Lumen and myself.

blorg wrote: »

If you want to remove the freewheel you would need a freewheel removal tool. To affix the fixed sprocket ideally you would have a chainwhip and track lockring tool but you can rotafix the sprocket on alternatively.

I was considering buying the Park tool for removing the sprockets. The cheapest I could find (including postage) is St John Street Cycles. I’d be happy to buy more than one if others are interested.

Would it be worth getting the track lockring tool or does the rotafix hack (thanks for the link) do the job well enough?

blorg

He sent me on details of the cost- flexible ones @€;4.50 ea and a fixed one @3.90 ea. I think I have the fixed ones on my tourer and they work fine. Shipping is €15 for the lot of us.

PBK have the freewheel remover with free shipping, as I think do CRC (I THINK it is the "BMX 4-pin" one.) This is just to take off the freewheel though which you don't particularly need to do as you can thread the fixed sprocket on the other side. Rotafix or a chain whip will definately get the sprocket on tight enough but then you need something like this for the lockring- these from Hubjub but they tend to be a bit expensive.



Alternatives to fit a lockring include the hammer and screwdriver. My Bowery currently lacks a lockring which has led to a few instances of sprocket unscrewing over extended skid stops but the sprocket seems very tight on this time, I can't shift it (bent a chainwhip trying.)

EDIT: From some research I think it is the FR-6 you need to remove the freewheel, not the FR-8 linked above.

Lumen

blorg wrote: »

He sent me on details of the cost- flexible ones @€;4.50 ea and a fixed one @3.90 ea. I think I have the fixed ones on my tourer and they work fine. Shipping is €15 for the lot of us.

I'm in at those prices, if you feel like placing an order. No rush, I'm easy.

Since I'm now riding fixed, fine-tuning is the least of my worries. I have enough difficulty not crashing.

Gavin

Lumen wrote: »

Since I'm now riding fixed, fine-tuning is the least of my worries. I have enough difficulty not crashing.

Ditto. What's the deal with stopping just using the pedals...? I find it very difficult. I almost have to get out of the saddle and stamp back on the pedal to get some sort of slowing motion, the force of the pedals rotating around is too strong. I must look like a complete loon. I just used my hand brakes pretty much all the way over this morning.

Although the track stand stuff is good fun, I could see myself practicing that a lot. And starting from irregular pedal positions could be useful for MTB I guess.

Lumen

Gavin wrote: »

Ditto. What's the deal with stopping just using the pedals...? I find it very difficult. I almost have to get out of the saddle and stamp back on the pedal to get some sort of slowing motion, the force of the pedals rotating around is too strong. I must look like a complete loon. I just used my hand brakes pretty much all the way over this morning.

Locking the back wheel is easy enough, as is slowing down a bit. It's the on-limit controlled braking I can't do with my legs (yet, dunno if it's even possible).

Since the Tricross has four brake levers I think I'm on negative hipster points already. Maybe I should move some of them to the top tube.

blorg

To do a skid stop you need to sort of lean forward, unweighting the back wheel, then lock your pedals at the 3 o'clock/9 o'clock position, parallel to the road.

It is not half as effective as a front brake or indeed as controllable as a rear brake but it is a lot of fun. Expect to wear through your tyres doing this too

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/fixed.html#skip

Knifey_Spooney

blorg wrote: »

To do a skid stop you need to sort of lean forward, unweighting the back wheel, then lock your pedals at the 3 o'clock/9 o'clock position, parallel to the road.

It is not half as effective as a front brake or indeed as controllable as a rear brake but it is a lot of fun. Expect to wear through your tyres doing this too

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/fixed.html#skip

Not to mention eating S**t a few times before getting it right.....

Gavin

Is a skid stop the only way to stop ?

Knifey_Spooney

Well if you've no brakes then its the only way to stop quickly.... You can resist the pedals and bring yourself to a trackstand too, which is reasonably easy to do on a fixe. One of the reasons I like em in cities is that you never really neet to put your feet down....

blorg

Gavin wrote: »

Is a skid stop the only way to stop ?

Pretty much the only way to stop fast without using the brakes. You can slow down gradually without doing a skid stop. Alternatively you can do this on a freewheel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH5W1Z23wPg

Or you can just use your brakes. Edit: Bike Snob on that video.

Gavin

Good god. What a tool. Ok, thanks for that. I'll mess with skid stopping for a laugh, but continue to use my brakes

Knifey_Spooney

There is that odd way of slowing down by pushing your tail out to one side and skidding the back wheel. This is really really painful to try and learn, I never even tried.....

Don17

Hi guys,

would you recommend the specialized tricross for commuting above a speciaized sirrus / giant FCR
I do about 5 miles each way, and am getting into going for longer spins at the weekends, anywhere from 10-30 K at the moment but hoping to increase that in the future.
Went into the bike shop the other day and they said the sirrus is more comfortable for longer spins than the tricross due to the more upright position and that a tricross bike is only dsigned for fast 1 hour races and not designed for long spins in the saddle

Thanks

blorg

I'd say you are better off with drop bars for longer distances, more hand positions and your weight is better distributed. The more upright position is fine for commuting and short distances.

The Tricross is actually pretty upright compared to a full road bike anyway, and you have the brake levers on the flats (which work really well) so you aren't losing anything. I bought mine to use as a commuter, it has acres of clearance for mudguards and will take a rack.

For longer spins you would of course want the Tricross with gears rather than the singlespeed.

Bottom line, I think the geared Tricross would be perfect for what you want and better than the Sirrus or Giant FCR. Sirrus or Giant FCR would be fine if you just wanted to commute, and indeed would be fine for 10-30km, but if you wanted to step up to the ~100km bracket in the future, you would be better off with the Tricross.

Bear in mind you will want to change the tyres on the Tricross for slicks if you are not using it off road.

ROK ON

Have a tricross sport with a triple groupset. Have used it on many many 100k spins and a few 160k spins.
Not a problem at all on long spins. A very comfy bike.
Would echo previous comments re tyres. Change the shop (knobbly) tyres with slicks. In saying that, I did the Ring of Kerry on it with knobbly tyres.

Don17

Thanks guys,

I prefer the tricross and reckon i'll go for that, just have to get work to sort out the gov scheme and i'm sorted!

Ant

blorg wrote: »

snip

Alternatives to fit a lockring include the hammer and screwdriver. My Bowery currently lacks a lockring which has led to a few instances of sprocket unscrewing over extended skid stops but the sprocket seems very tight on this time, I can't shift it (bent a chainwhip trying.)

EDIT: From some research I think it is the FR-6 you need to remove the freewheel, not the FR-8 linked above.

Thanks a lot, blorg for all the useful info on the tools required for removing the sprockets. In particular, cheers for pointing out that the FR-6 is the appropriate tool rather than the FR-8 I linked to.

Lumen wrote: »

I'm in at those prices, if you feel like placing an order. No rush, I'm easy.

Since I'm now riding fixed, fine-tuning is the least of my worries. I have enough difficulty not crashing.

I’m still interested in the adjustable noodles as well. I’d like to buy two of each (fixed and flexible) as I’d like to try out both and spares are always handy.

I’d really like to have the ability to fine-tune my brakes as after only a week of cycling with a fixed sprocket, I’m not (yet) brave enough to try that skid-stop and I don’t get a lot of stopping force from resisting the upward motion of the pedals. It’s great to have working brakes when cycling in rush-hour traffic and need to stop in a hurry.

In any case, according to Sheldon Brown’s article, “Heavy duty resisting is widely reputed to be bad for your legs, and to be counterproductive for building up muscles and coordination for forward pedaling. … Eccentric contraction is reputed to cause micro-tears to your muscle tissue, so it actually weakens your muscles, unlike other forms of exercise.” http://www.google.com/search?q=eccentric+contraction

I presume Lumen and blorg are both based in Dublin so we could meet up and exchange cash for the parts.
Edit: I just noticed from the "Location: Dublin" that we're all based in Dublin.

blorg

Going to look at ordering these noodles, so just have to decide on an amount. So far we have:

Ant (2 of each) -
Lumen
Knifey_Spooney
Blorg

How many does everyone want, and which type? You need at least two (front and back.) I'll then gather the money and put in an order. Bit of a warning- this German guy was a little slow the last time but I did get the brakes and noodles in the end.

Cost is 7.80/pair (fixed) 9/pair (flexible) + 3.75 postage each presuming there are four of us.

Lumen

blorg wrote: »

How many does everyone want, and which type?

A pair of fixed, please.

DirkVoodoo

I admire Ted Shred's awareness, but my word what an idiot!

NeilMcEoigheann

you can slow a fixie with out skid stopping you just need strong legs, you can also do a small skid stop without unweighting the rear wheel and keeping in the saddle,

DirkVoodoo

Ted's problem is he is riding without brakes on a singlespeed, i.e. freewheel.

His genius idea is he uses his shoe to brake by sticking his leg out over the back wheel.