The Biking Hub: Mountain

Features » Dan

Dream cross country bikes

So, you’re a budding cross country superstar and you’ve just inherited some cash from a rich uncle.

The question is, what’s your next move?

Clearly it’s time to go on a Bikes-R-Us shopping spree, but what to chose? Trek, Giant, Specialized, Cannondale, Norco, all the big players have some great options in the top tax bracket of cross country bikes, but you can’t forget some of the amazing offerings from smaller companies like Devinci, Titus, Scott, Gary Fisher, Turner and others.

You may not have unlimited funds to spend on a cross country bike, but just in case you suddenly get a job offer from a certain Mr. Trump this list should help you. Consider this your guide to the best of the best – like flipping through the pages of a Dupont Registry.

Here’s a look at five of our favorite cross country full-suspension cross country options when money is no object.

Trek Top Fuel 110, $5,499.99 US

Based on Trek’s hugely successful OCLV carbon frame, the Top Fuel 110 uses the best of everything. Trek’s Bontrager brand provides an assortment of carbon goodies including the Race XXX seatpost, stem and 31.8mm handlebars. The bike also has a Bontrager X Lite tubeless wheelset and tires. The drivetrain is entirely built of Shimano XTR including the love-them-or-hate-them dual control shifters, front and rear derailleurs, 11-34 nine-speed cassette and the sexy polished XTR crankset. For suspension, the Top Fuel 110 gets the RockShox SID World Cup fork with 80mm of lockable travel, a carbon steerer and crown. On the backend, the 110 uses RockShox’s MC 3 with the Poploc remote lockout system.

What’s most interesting about this year’s top-end Fuel, however, is the addition of disc brakes. Up until 2005, the 110 had XTR rim brakes, but this year it gets XTR discs.

Cannondale Scalpel Team Replica, $5,499.99 US

You’ll notice the price tag on the Scalpel is exactly the same as the Top Fuel. Trust me, that’s not a coincidence. Cannondale and Trek are two Made-In-The-USA brands that are definitely going after the same piece of the high-end market.

But where the Fuel has RockShox suspension and an XTR-based drivetrain, the 2006 Scalpel Team Replica bike is primarily a SRAM-based bike with Fox suspension and a large assortment of Cannondale’s in-house components. The most obvious evidence of this is on the front ‘fork’ which is the 110mm Cannondale Lefty Speed Carbon, which uses the Fox TerraLogic technology. Fox also provides the rear Float RP3 which is custom tuned to the bike. The drivetrain features SRAM X.O shifters and rear derailleur with an XTR cassette, XT front derailleur and Cannondale’s own highly-touted Si Hollowgram cranks. The wheelset is the popular Mavic CrossMax SL with Maxxis Larsen TT tubeless tires. You also get Magura Marta SL brakes, an FSA carbon seat post and handlebars, CrankBrothers Eggbeater pedals and a Fi’zi:k Ti seat.

Specialized S-Works Epic Carbon Disc, $7,100 US

As it says on the Specialized website, “racing is one thing, winning is quite another.” That’s what the Epic Carbon is designed for. The Epic is made from Specialized FACT 10m carbon and the rear shock, of course, is the highly-regarded Brain, which this year has 100mm of travel. The build kit on the Epic is very impressive. You get the Fox F100 RLT fork, a Thomson seatpost and stem, a Specialized carbon bar and Mavic Crossmax SL wheels. The drivetrain is the full 27-speed Shimano XTR setup with the matching XTR hydraulic disc brakes. Specialized also sells a $6,500 US ‘Rim’ version with an X.O drivetrain, Avid rim brakes, DT Swiss wheels and a RockShox Reba World Cup fork.

Titus Racer-X ExoGrid, $6,086 (XTR), $5,827 (SRAM X.0)

It’s hard not to argue that the Titus Racer-X ExoGrid is one of the sexiest frames ever designed. With its titanium skeleton and carbon fibre inners, the ExoGrid is about as technically advanced a frame as you can get in 2006. This year’s model also has carbon seat stays and X-links for added stiffness and weight savings. Although Titus often come as frames-only packages are available with both Shimano and SRAM drive train options. Because of the custom-nature of buying a Titus, you can select exactly the components you want in every aspect, from the fork (a Fox F100 w/lockout is the default), to the seat post (Thomson Elite by default). The rear shock is a custom-tuned Fox Float RP3 which comes set up for your weight when you buy from a proper Titus dealer.

Scott Genius RC Limited, $10,234.99 CDN

This truly is the holy grail of cross country race platforms. This bike is not available in the US because of patent and copyright reasons, and if you want to pick one up on this side of the border, it will set you back a staggering five figures, making it one of the most expensive production bikes in the world.

So what makes it so special? First of all, the frame is Scott’s proven CR1 full-carbon frame with 90mm of rear travel through a custom Scott rear shock with lockout and lots of adjustments. In order to get some extra travel up front, Scott uses the RockShox Reba World Cup fork with a carbon crown and remote lockout. The drivetrain is a bit more traditional with the full lineup of XTR components including the dual control levers and 160mm XTR disc brakes. Ritchey’s WCS carbon components on the Genius include a flat handlebar, stem and seat post. Like the Scalpel and Epic, the Scott racer comes with Crossmax wheels, although they’re wrapped in Scott’s own tubeless dual-compound tires.

Choosing from the best of the best

So which one is the best? Picking one in particular is pretty much impossible unless you were able to spend a considerable amount of time on all of them. In a perfect world you would take all five bikes (all $34,000 worth) out to a sweet piece of singletrack for about two weeks and hammer like mad until you decide which one feels the best to you.

At this price level, every bike is more than what most people need, and represents the highest level of technology and craftsmanship, so really it comes down to what suits you the most.

As far as value goes, you really can’t beat the Trek Top Fuel 110. For almost half the price of the Scott, you get a race-ready and race-proven bike loaded with lightweight carbon components. As someone who would chose the functionality of disc brakes over the weight of rim brakes any day, I’m also happy to see Trek has added that feature for 2006.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 26th, 2006 at 12:05 am and is filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.