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Hello all, I've been going nuts lately trying to find the right budget bike, I'm looking at these two in the next few days and being new to cross bikes outside opinions are important. Ive been looking at stuff under a grand and have found an 07 redline with campagnolo veloce group, ritchy wcs bars etc.. for 850, for an extra 100 he will throw in an extra veloce crank with more road friendly 50/34 rings, and cole shuriken lite wheels with specilized road tires which i understand are decent road wheels. Other Bike is an 08 Major Jake spec'd with 105, and an ultegra r/d 900$. However no real pics. How do these compare in the cross world? I understand I will have to see for myself but not knowing much about the spec on these bike I'll leave it to the experts. Here are links of the 2. https://www.tbn.ca/forum/buy-and-sell/3876 and http://toronto.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-sell-sports-bikes-Kona-Major-Jak.... Click where it says pics here for the redline.

 

Cheers all and sorry for the annoying newb post!

Andrew

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Over all the Kona is a better value.

I have a 2009 Major Jake that I purchased after borrowing someone elses for a race and love the bike.  Redline also makes a solid non-boutique race bike, but the only experience I have with the Redline was with my wife's that was last years model that had the carbon stays (she was very happy with it). 

 

I would tend to favor the Kona, but would be more inclined to make the decision on the component preference.  Personally I prefer Shimano over Campy when racing cross, but there has to be plenty of people that feel the opposite.

Both are great bikes. I've owned both and raced both. I currently race a pair of Redlines - a Pro and Team and run Campy on both, which I love for 'cross, unlike DStudley. The Campy works better and is more durable in cross conditions than Shimano. I recently stripped and rebuilt a Kona exactly like the one you're looking at for a friend and I couldn't believe how light it was, much lighter than the Redline Pro. I love Scandium - my Team is made of the stuff it great stuff for cross. As far the differences in handling/geometry I've got to say that I like the way the Redlines handle on twisty quick courses (I attribute it to their BMX background but I could be kidding myself) they are very racy. They love to dive in, which in racing is good, but on long rides that's not always so good. That said I love the way the Konas handle in mud, snow and on ice - I always felt like I was riding tractor that could cut through anything on the Kona. I also like the Redlines for the fact that their top tubes don't slope as much as the Kona, but that may not matter as much in a 56. The deciding factor should be the groupo. What are you running on the rest of the bikes in your stable (your wife's included)? I like to interchange wheels, cassettes and shifters so I run Campy 10 on everything - road, TT, and my cross bikes (3 Redlines, 1 Trek XO - I sold the Kona to friend that loves it as I did and replaced it with a Redline SS). If your garage is full of Shimano, stick with it. I don't think you could go wrong with either one of these bikes. Also I wouldn't bother spending an extra 100 on the crank. You could buy a bigger ring for 25 bucks if you want more teeth. Good luck, I'm sure you enjoy the bike no matter which one you bring home.

Hey thanks for the replies, I ended up getting the redline and am very happy with the decision. The guy with the Major Jake still hasn't got back to me about seeing it so I grabbed the redline last night. For 900 I got it and the set of nice road wheels/tires for road rides, and the spare crank which ill just take the chainrings from, and some Shimano SPD pedals as well. As far as other bikes in my stable, there is only mountain bikes so there wont be much part swapping however I can see component buying may become addictive. The 10speed Campy stuff seems to shift nice and the shift levers are alloy of sorts and feel substantial. Now time to go out for a ride, thanks for the info and support, looks like I'll have to post back on here soon after some real testing.

Cheers,

Andrew

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