jms123

Thanks for the response but still slightly confused.

The ETT of the 2014 Crosstrail is 615 + an 80mm stem = 695.

Both modern bikes, in my recommended size have approx 625 ETT + 80mm stems so they are in effect longer and in theory I would be more stretched out but they are the sizes recommended for me and past experience tells me I usually fit recommended sizes.

So either there are other things going on with the geometry that I am not understanding or perhaps no crosstrail riders like to be stretched out

travbikeman

That's still a nice bike. My suggestion...repack wheel bearings, give a good tuning, if you want something different, modernize drive-train and ride the heck out of it.

jms123

I think you are right about this as I am seeing more bikes become available as well.

DougG

I stopped at my LBS and confirmed that the Crosstrail is done for. The sales guy was pushing the Sirrus X as the "replacement" but after researching that line I can give several reasons why I'm not buying it (pun intended). So if I really get serious about replacing my '13 CT, it looks like the Trek DualSport 4 would be a nice bet. My wife's owned 3 or 4 Treks but every time I'm in the market Trek's offerings are either not quite what I'm looking for or are priced above what I think they're worth. Case in point: when I bought my e-bike this year I ended up with a Specialized Vado instead of a Trek Allant+.

This time it looks like Trek will win out if it comes to that.

travbikeman

Thanks for the confirm! Had a feeling this was going to happen, especially since the last few years Specialized has been reducing the models of the Crosstrail. My bet is that they just didn't make much money of them. U.S. consumers are going more for the different variations of gravel bikes and ebikes.

I do wonder if the Sirrus X is supposed to be more similar to the Giant Toughroad....which strangely the flatbar Toughroad I heard is now discontinued.

Trek, Canyon, Giant, Scott, Cannondale, Fuji and am betting a few others still make these sport hybrids though. Just noticed today that Scott updated their web site and now has the 2021 inventory. The new Sub Crosses look nice.

hokiefyd 

I am surprised to see Specialized exit the "dual sport" market. It seems to be one of the most popular segments of the hybrid market for recreational cyclists. They definitely have expanded their Sirrus lineup to include more than just "traditional" fitness bikes like the Trek FX and Giant Escape. The Sirrus line has expanded into other markets, especially with their FS forks. I guess Specialize see some of the Sirrus line as suitable replacement for the Crosstrail That's just a guess on my part.

freeranger

I've never ridden a hybrid with a susp.fork. When I lived in MD., rode lots of the rail-trails (most were crushed limestone) throughout MD. and PA. on my mtn.bike. Never heard of a hybrid bike back then. But seems that a hybrid with a susp.fork would have been a pleasure to ride on them. Guess the bike companies figure a fully rigid hybrid with decent size tires at lower pressure will work just fine. And they very well might--my wife and I started mtn.biking on fully rigid bikes, and still had a blast! Gotta admit tho, a susp front fork was a welcome change on the trails.

subgrade

On gravel and light off-road, sure. On pavement - not so much, whereas a suspension fork can be locked out (at leas the decent ones).

DougG

My LBS specifically said that the Sirrus X line is a replacement and he also mildly badmouthed suspension forks as being "heavy and not doing very much". The Crosstrail does have a rather short-travel fork, but I'd have to be convinced that the FS is a suitable replacement. I remember riding my CT a couple years ago when my group decided to do a cut-through using a fairly rough trail and I almost thought that something was wrong with my bike as I got pretty beat up by the route, which seemed more gnarly than the last time I was on it. Then when I got home I discovered that my fork had been locked out! So a good illustration of the difference.

Crosstrailmods

Afternoon fellow CT owners/riders/serial forum followers, first post here and I've begun to mod my 2010 (if I recall correctly) CT Sport Disc. Taken the decision to add some lightness and make it a little more usable on terrain more technical than a gravel road.
ultimately looking for any suggestions for a budget friendly fork that won't ruin the geometry but will be better than the suntour nvx that's on there at the moment. Thinking of going with 100mm travel - anyone have good experience of it and what do they end up looking like with a 100mm fork in the front (curious about ruining geometry)

hokiefyd 

Assuming your stock fork is a 63-75mm travel fork, a 100mm design will add an inch and a half or so to the front of the bike. Your head angle will become slacker and, assuming your new fork's offset is the same as the stock fork, your mechanical trail will increase (trail is the distance the tire's contact patch is behind, or trails, the point where the steering axis would intersect the road). In general, longer trail is more stable at high speed but more difficult to maneuver at lower speeds (it has more flop). And in general, shorter trail is easier to maneuver at slower speeds, but less stable at higher speeds (it would feel more sensitive to steering input). The small difference you're likely to incur probably won't change the way the bike handles very much. A new fork with a higher offset than your stock fork has can help mitigate the lengthening of the trail caused by the slacker head tube angle.

Other parts of the bike that will change include standover height (your top tube will raise, at an angle), your bottom bracket will increase a little bit (should be good for more technical terrain), and your seat tube angle will slacken. This will move your saddle rearward in relation to the center axis of your crank. You can probably move the saddle itself a little further forward on the seat post if you wish to mitigate this and keep your body in the same position relative to the crank. At the least, you'd want to angle your saddle a little further forward to keep it level. Your effective top tube will also shorten a little bit -- your handlebar will be a very small amount closer to you than it is now (even before you move your saddle forward, if you do).

I think the riding position changes will influence the feel more than the mechanical trail differences will. In short, the bike will feel a little more upright to you. If you're already tight on standover, this won't be the right direction to go (it'll increase some).

badger1

Stick with the current travel/axle-to-crown length.

There are two obvious candidates, either of which will lighten your bike and improve its handling considerably.
Rockshox Paragon Gold (https://www.sram.com/en/rockshox/models/fs-parg-rl-a1)
Suntour NCX E Air (https://www.srsuntour.com/products/fork/NCX-E-5897.html)

travbikeman

If you are no longer interested in going the 100 travel suspension and would be more interested in the Rockshox Paragon, check out my original review on this:

https://www.bikeforums.net/hybrid-bi...x-paragon.html

I'm still a big fan of the fork, but if you are looking at doing greater than gravel riding, such as more technical mountain biking, well, that depends if any hybrid fork is able to handle what you want. It depends on just how technical the trails you are going to use will be.

Personally, I've wiped out too often on my Crosstrail and now Sub Cross even with the Paragon's while trying to do what some would call light single tracking, to really want to bother doing that again with these bikes. Not so much the new forks being the cause, but the overall geometry, tire size and such that makes it more difficult to ride single track.

(this last wipe out really hurt)

novecho_delta

While I agree with a lot that was previously said about geometry changes, I added a 100mm Rockshox Recon to my 2009 Crosstrail and I really prefer how it rides. It was only a 20mm change in travel, and I didn't notice a huge difference in terms of geometry, but the improved capability from the new fork was much appreciated and it far outweighed any negative changes of the geometry. As long as you aren't crunching Strava KOMs (and you aren't if you're riding a Crosstrail), the increase in travel will only improve your bike. (in my experience anyway)

Plus, it looks cooler.

ricster2000

Hi, I posted this question yesterday without realising their was a Crosstrail owners thread.

I own a Specialized Crosstrail Disc 2017, and recently purchased the Specialized Elite Rear Rack to go with it. The problem I have is that the included mounting bolts (I believe are maybe M5x20mm) do not screw in all the way into the dropout eyelets, there is still maybe 5-10mm still hanging out, so the head of the bolt is not right up to the rack. However, the same bolts are completely fine on the Seat-stay eyelets. Could someone who has mounted a rack onto a Crosstrail confirm the depth of their dropstay eyelets, or even the length of bolt that you have used. I just need to know whether I need buy some shorter bolts, or whether I should be "cleaning" out the eyelet to so that the provided screws go in further (though its quite tight as it is so I think its already hitting the end, as these are not though holes as far as I can tell)

Thanks

Crosstrailmods

Anyone had any attempts at running an external headset to enable a tapered steerer? Been looking around at forks and I think this CT is going to go the way of gravel with a suspension corrected fork of some kind as I think for proper MTB stuff I may as well bite the bullet and get another frame (wife will be sooooo delighted). I have some road components to transfer over, just still have my eyes peeled for a fork to drop a chunk of weight and there's a Selcof fork at Planetx that seems to fit the bill, or perhaps one of the Identiti forks with the straight steerer (I've read somewhere the Suntour NVX is over 2.5kg).

creativepart

I’m not a fan of the stock “Brain” Suntour on my 2018 CT Sport Disc. So I’m going the 100mm straight steerer route. But I’m also not too concerned about weight because I’ve turned my CT into an eBike. I added a Dillenger 750w geared hub motor kit back in January. I gotta tell you this made the bike vastly better in every way. I went the hub motor route but it probably would have been even better as a mid-drive.

The new hub wheel necessitated a change to a freewheel and a 9-speed freewheel caused some chainline issues, so the bike now has an 8-sp freewheel and that necessitated a change to a Shimano Alivio 8-sp click-shift.

I’m not at all convinced the CT could be made into a full gravel bike due to it’s overall weight. But making it an eBike is right up it’s alley.



CT eBike

DougG

On my first-year (2013) Crosstrail Comp Disc I've noticed that the front brake lever is getting close to the grip when I engage the brake. I can't recall if the hydraulic brakes are self-adjusting or if this simply means that my brake pads are approaching end-of-life. I've replaced them 2 or 3 times over the life of the bike but can't remember the last time -- at least a few years IIRC. The bike is hoisted up right now or I'd just go out and pull the front wheel but thought I'd check here first .

DougG

In addition to my old Crosstrail I also own an e-bike that I got about a year ago (Specialized Vado). While I enjoy riding it -- at 74yo I can use a boost sometimes! -- at 55lb it's no Crosstrail and I pretty much stick to paved and unpaved rail-trails and the like. When I was first looking for an e-bike, what I said I really wanted was and e-bike version of my Crosstrail, but nothing like that was available from a major mfr. Well, a couple weeks ago I stopped by the LBS and took a short ride on the new Vado SL, which seems to be exactly what I was looking for in the first place:



You'd hardly know it's an e-bike just by looking at it and I can attest that it feels just like my Crosstrail and can easily be ridden with the assist level at zero without feeling heavy. In fact, it probably only weighs a few pounds more than the Crosstrail and the geometry is very close. The tradeoff is that it has about half the assistance power of my Vado, but then I rarely have the Vado above its lowest "Eco" level. I'm not looking for a free ride here -- just some assistance on the hills and against headwinds.

So now I'm trying to figure out if I can justify getting this new bike by the start of next year's riding season and possibly being able to replace both the Vado and Crosstrail with this one. I know that going n-1 on number of bikes is heresy, but I could use the room in the garage!

travbikeman

Whenever I had the Tektro brakes coming close to the grip on my Crosstrail, I've never had to replace pads, I've always had to burp the hydraulic brakes to get the air out.

If this is the case for your bike, check youtube for burping the brakes. There are many great video's that will show how to do this.

travbikeman

That is a nice looking bike! If this helps you get out more, then sell the others. Heck with the idea of N-1....It's DougG+outside on a new bike!

That's just more important.

PeteMoss

Found my own fix.

Slowkevin

What’s the record for lightest build so far? Got my 2016 Crosstrail disc down to 22.4 lbs with xt brakes, salsa steel fork, 1x 11-40, ixf cranks, carbon handlebar, seatpost/saddle, ai2 rotors, tubeless wtb resolutes, esi grips, nashbar soho pedals. It flies! Gonna put a redshift stem too though but it’ll add 0.4lbs. Im sure a carbon Crosstrail could get to 17-18lbs easily.

Slowkevin

Here’s my 2016 Crosstrail disc build @ 23 pounds:



Mods: Salsa cro-moto cromoly fork (weighs 2.2lbs), 25 mm WTB wheels, WTB resolutes tubeless, Stans sealant, Gorilla tape in the wheels, Renthal carbon fat bar, Redshift 100 mm 6 degree stem, XT brakes, Ai2 rotors, Ixf crank, Generic Amazon 38t oval chainring, Sunrace 11-40 cassette, Ec 90 carbon seat-post, Toseek carbon saddle, Esi grips, Origin8 bar ends, Nashbar soho pedals

Total cost of upgrades: approximately $1033

Posting for others wanting to do a light-weight gravel build. With a carbon fork I could hit 22lbs but the Salsa cro-moly fork has taken blue/black trails and multiple crashes without issue so I might just leave this as is. Climbs way, way faster and turns much better than stock. I hit and sustained 26 mph on a flat straight stretch on my last ride, almost identical to what I reach on my 20lb road bike on the same stretch.

Possibly I'll do a GRX or AdventX drivetrain in the future but the stock Altus derailleur is already smooth.

DougG

Nice bike -- thanks for sharing!