I Want This Bike!!

Has anyone tried the Specialized Tricross Sport Triple bike??

http://www.specialized.com/bc/SBCBkModel.jsp?spid=32209

I saw the charcoal one at my LBS last week (yes, AFTER I bought my Specialized Rockhopper MTB) and fell in love with it. It looks like the perfect combination of road bike (skinny tires but not TOO skinny) and trail bike...but of course it's $1299 - hard time explaining THAT to my dear significant other after having just bought the MTB. I would like to buy a road bike but have always shied away from them due to a) the skinny tires and b) the price...but this one looks like it might be worth it.

Any opinions?

TK

I love cross bikes set up for road. I don't ride cross, but have a cross check. I rode it on the MS ride last year. Lots of folks (broad generalization coming) like cross bikes for road because they look like a road bike, with clearance for racks, fenders, and wider tires. You can put skinnier tires on it later - if you want to. Otherwise, you can happily ride the width it comes with!

ETA - you might want to look at a cross check too. The stock build is a little less ($300-ish).

CA

I appreciate your input. I've got my Rockhopper equipped with slicks right now because I mostly ride on the road but want the sturdiness of the MTB frame and wider tires. The guys at the LBS didn't come out and say it, but I'm sure they wondered what the heck I was doing when I said I wanted to replace the stock tires with slicks. I tried out a friend's Trek road bike but it just felt too fragile to me.

Sigh...

TK

What exactly is a cross check?

A surly cross check. I had my lbs build up mine and I love it. I can put on 23c tires or up to 42c. Clearance for fenders if I want and braze ons for a rack. It's the all purpose do everything bike and I love mine. Pictures here.

I have two wheelsets, one for road tires (currently 25c) and one for touring tires (Bontrager 38c). I just put on the new wheelset and I can do everything from smooth roads to rail trails and light off road.

I am like you about the beefier frame on a mtb for the road. I went with the Gary Fisher Utopia with narrow tires (you know, I guess they are slicks but more narrow) and rack with wire baskets. I like having mtb handlebars instead of the drop bars, I just would never use them the way you should. It feels too unnatural for me. Plus, I like the bigger frame. Call me crazy but I'm perfectly happy with it. I even got disc brakes which people think is a little kooky on a bike you commute on (weight wise) but I wanted it to be as close to my mountain bike as possible because I'm riding to be in shape to race on my mtb. So that is why the focus was to keep it similar to the mtb and not make them different. I hope that make sense.

I have a 2006 TriCross Sport compact, which was the most basic model of TriCross that year. After riding it for 2 1/2 years I've decided that I want/need upgraded components and am trying to save up the $$ for a new bike, but I still really enjoy the heck out of the TriCross. I ride it on everything from road, to paved or un-paved rail-trails, to the gravelly/rooty/rocky C&O Canal towpath, to beginner-level singletrack. It's also able to take racks and such, so it'd be a great commuter/grocery bike. It's a terrific, very fun, sturdy little uber-bike and I highly recommend that you give one a test ride :D

http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...-09/029-b2.jpg

Ooh, ooh, I want one too! Very cool.

Cross bikes are lovely creatures. (to those of us of a "certain age", they are reminiscent of the basic 10-Speeds of yore)

Love my Surly Cross Check with a burning purple passion. She has 32mm Vittoria Randonneurs on her right now, and moustache bars with barcons. Sturdy as all get out, and smooth steel which has survived some nasty abuses (unintentional, I swear!). Her derailleur hanger got wolloped by another bike on a bus rack; but my LBS was able to just bend the steel back out into place for no charge, which was very nice. I've ridden her on streets, bike paths, dirt trails, grassy fields, and gravel roads.

If you yearn for that cross bike, I say go get it! You won't regret it!

More bikes, more better! :D

ETA: oh, and I'm Cross Check #3 in this thread. Here's the link to the Surly site. http://www.surlybikes.com/crosscheck_comp.html