CrossTrail Elite Carbon

Since I’m commuting to work these days through park trails and canal tow paths I decided to purchase a new bike which was fit for purpose as my 15 year old aluminium Sirrus Sport is more suited to roads and was starting to show its age. Since I take care of my bikes and keep them for long periods I decided to take advantage of an end of season sale and bought the carbon framed Crosstrail Elite. Here’s my take on it after 2 weeks ownership:

Weight: with the suspension fork this bike is still 10% lighter than my Sirrus but still feels very solid and able to plough it’s way over obstacles like tree branches and uneven trails.

Looks: In it’s all black livery this bike looks the business and has reflective paint. The seamless frame transitions look very well engineered.

Ride: I dropped the tyre pressure from 100 to 80 psi which, with the help of the front suspension, smoothes out most of the judder I was experiencing with the Sirrus. The Fitness Brain technology only deforms from low underneath impacts so there’s no feeling of bouncing around and everything feels smooth and even.

Seat: I’m 6’3” with a 34” inside leg and was surprised that I had to extract the seat post to its minimum insertion with the XL frame. If you have longer legs you might have to look elsewhere.

Riding position: As you’d imagine it’s quite a low centre of gravity with a forwards lean to get weight over the front wheel for additional control. The flat bars are quite wide to exert a greater torque on the wheel - overall everything feels right in this regard. Although I have fitted bar ends which has brought the handles closer in by 20mm each end dropping out the inserts. The end caps are shaped and of no use with bar ends so I bought some new round caps.

Braking: The fitted disc brakes get the job done. Nice and progressive although the plastic brake grips seem a tad flimsy when alloy would have been a better fit with this bike.

Grips: I had to trial a few positions with these to get comfortable but they screw into position nicely. I fitted bar ends as I frequently change grip position and like to climb on the bar ends - overall these grips key in with bar ends very well and are nice ergonomic shapes for the palm of your hand.

Gears: with 10x2 the 20 gears work well and the chain doesn’t complain at either end of the spectrum. Gear changing is very smooth and precise and the gears are in close increments. The top gear is great for flat or downhill sections and you can move surprisingly quickly on this heavy duty use bike. I don’t use the small cog much as there is a good range on the top cog.

Overall I’m very pleased with this bike and it’s perfectly suited to the type of trail riding that I tend to do. It’s a touch more sluggish on the road as you’d expect on a bike with 4cm wide tyres but it’s built to take the knocks. That said it’s definately not an outright mountain bike so I wouldn’t ride straight off curbs, but if you’re looking for a sturdy bike that will smooth out a bumpy trail and still go quickly on the roads the Crosstrail could be just what you are looking for. I’m happy to highly recommend this heavy duty yet light speedy hybrid.