"I initially bought the Subway-2 2009 black model, took it home and assembled it but felt it wasn’t for me, it was much much better than my Raleigh but had a similar seating position. I needed a bit more comfort, another factor was I decided I didn’t need the bike to be flash (in case it was parked in town centre) but required the front wheel came of so we could chuck it into the back of the SUV. Halfords were very kind and said bring the Subway in to replace with Crossfire – no issues at all as the subway was not used and had all the paper, cellophane on it.
This may help you if you are deciding on the Crossfire, first of all its not a street bike and doesn’t pretend to be, the V brakes are very powerful so the idea of discs can be dropped, especially if you lead a busy life and do not want to deal with future complications of Disc brakes – not much can go wrong with V brakes right !! The seat is more comfortable than subway 2 with suspension post underneath (which can be made hard or soft), great if you want a bit of comfort. Handlebar post tilts up by 60 degrees from horizontal, this is superb if you have a short frame and want to bring the bars up - I am 70kg, 5’ 6” and using the 18” (at 5' 6" you can get away with a Crossfire in a 20" frame with seat at lowest, but not on Subway-2 20"). The front suspension is lockable for road use and good for trails, this type of single suspension makes the bike “hard-Tail” bike. The suspension is well selected and suited to this bike – its quite light btw and not like the old MTB suspensions.
The gears, SRAM SX4 is used on the back (24 speed) with twist shifters, there is a lot of debate about click shifters and twist, i.e. what is better, for me twist is better as you can Dump the Gears rather than clicking them down 1 by 1. The twist shifters are not that expensive if they go wrong out of warranty – its worth that piece of mind. Subway 2 uses SX5, but you know what either is miles better than what I had on the Raliegh which was clunky, with the SX4 its like an automatic car, you can hardly hear gear change, technology has come a long way since I last bought a bike 10 years ago !!
On piece of gripe, the 700cc wheels are butted, the front one is not true and is slightly kinked at the join and rubs against the brake, so you get that 360 motion click, click click sound, I am about to call Halfords.
Oh one more thing, on this type of frame black colour would have been better for men, not too sure about dark blue metallic for men !! We picked a Crossfire 2 for my wife as well, seat and frame are slightly different. Benefit of buying two same bikes, swap wheels etc if one is not being used an other one is required…
I looked at some cycles at Evans, Specilized and Trek are good but why pay more for less comfort. Anyway spend the money that you save on some quality locks and a meal...
I am knocking 1 star off for performance, its not a performance bike, but performance is as good as it gets for such a bike, so maybe the star should go back up. I did debate its value £269 vs £279 for Subway 2, which has a lot more, but feel the price is justified due to seat, quality suspensions and adjustable stem, although would be better suited to £249 in sale and £279 rrp. Hey but what do I know and anyway its not my shop, if it was I would price it higher :)"