Tell me about your rides. I am interested in opinions on how the bike rides, how well it holds up, and your opinions of Kelly in general. Pictures would be good too!

I would also like to know if you are running MTB cranks like Chris recommends or if you are running a road crankset. I am getting the impression from reading the Kelly website that a 38/48 ring combo is a tight fit with the chainstay, requiring a longer BB spindle and thereby making the chainline a bit off.

Chris has been really good with information, but I know (from reading his website) that he really likes to build the cross bikes with MTB cranks and gearing and I am not too sure I am ready for a crankset with that kind of gearing.

Thanks in advance

Gotcher back. I've ha dmy Kelly knobbyX for about 3 months and have put on roughly 300 miles. Not a ton of use out of it so far. I can tell you this though, I love it. It fits very well, better than any road or cross bike I've had before. Its not heavy, yet its not all that light either. FWIW, I'm 6'5" and am on a 61. I've run it with tires as big as the Conti 28x2.1 in the front and a Ritchey Zed 42 fits in the rear, so mud clearnace with standard tires is NOT an issue. Handleing is pretty good. Nice and stable on fast down hills(somthing I've got lots of here is SW WI). Going back up is good as well, but I've never been known as a great climber. Its not as slid feeling going up as my Kona was, there is is that. Twisty, rolly roads/gravel roads are pure joy on it though. The comfort of the steel tubes really shine on rough surfaces.

I've got mine built up with Campy Daytona drivetrain(Chris adjusted the stays for me no questions asked) with RaceF ace Mtn cranks. I tried some road cranks, but none of them worked. All set ups used a 50-36 gearing combo. And yes my chainline as it sits is all wonky. I need to work on that. But it works for now. Brakes are Spooky's. They're really nice, finiky to set up, but stop/slow really well. I only wish Kelly's came w/a canti hanger on the frame. As it sits, I'm running a filed don seat binder hanger. Its functional, but kinda ugly in my mind.

I couldn't have been happier with Chris' service. I know he sometimes gets panned for lack of service, but my expereince was quite the opposite. Like I mentioned above, he adjusted the stays for me, sent the bike out no shipping, and it got here quick from Nevada. He was a pleasure to talk with, and even knew the area I live in in terms of terrain. I'd happily buy form him again if the opportunity arose.

Never mind the steerer in the pics, its been lopped off now.

I like mine too. It's a 59cm, and it works great with Dura-Ace cranks, although I can't remember how long my bottom bracket spindle is. I've run tires as large as Ritchey Alfa-bite Trail Mix 700cx42, and there was still a comfortable space around them.

It's a fun bike to ride. Chris has been really friendly and helpful to me, and you can tell he loves making bikes.

Alex

Having just supplied a Knobby X cross to one of our customers I can comment on the crank issue. Chris Kelly is now designing the frames around road cranks due to popular demand. You can also spec a seat clamp mounted hanger if you want to run regular canti brakes and not V's. Chris even added rack and fender mounts in double quick time for us.

I have the SS shown below. It has a really nice balanced ride. The V brakes can make the fork chatter a bit, but it doesn't bother me. For the price, I'd recommend it. It's far more nimble than my Kona.

Does it look like a fellar can fit the 700x44 Mutanoraptor in that sweet looking Kelly fork?

Hell, Canti's make the fork shudder a bit. Tradeoff for the nice supple ride I guess. I love the green rims. Almost wish I got some with mine.

the fork'll fit the fatties just fine:
I've run it with tires as big as the Conti 28x2.1 in the front and a Ritchey Zed 42 fits in the rear.

I had some fork chatter when braking too. It took a while to find just the right amount of toe in. I haven't had any problems running it w/ road cranks (maybe b/c it's a triple crank) and road wheels.

I've logged about 2000km on a 61cm Knobby X in the last 3 months. It is my first steel frame in a long time, and I've mostly enjoyed the experience. The craftsmanship of the frame seems excellent, and I like the geometry. However, I have a couple complaints.

Both my brakes howled like hell. Avid Shorty's with stock Avid pads. I'm experienced with canti set-up, and the bike these brakes were moved from never experienced any squeal. But more scary, the fork chatters *badly.* I tried different pads, different toe-in, but nothing changed much. So I began to expirement.

By holding my hand on a seat stay under braking, I noticed the stays were vibrating intensely under braking, so I tried some Stiffy brake arches from Davinci. Amazing difference on the rear brake -- without changing anything else on the brake set-up, just bolting on the stiffener, the rear brake went from a screaming banshee with moderate power to absolutely silent with fantastic power. As far as I know, Davinci is the only company who makes a brake stiffener designed around a ~35mm tire instead of a 2.1" tire, which allows a much smaller and therefore stiffer arch. I'm very impressed with this product. My rear brake literally went from squealing under *any* set-up, to being impossible to make squeal under any set-up (including intentionally bad toe-in, just to test). Clearly, the squeal is due to rear triangle design -- perhaps too thin a tube choice for the seat stay on a frame of this size. I can accept this weakness since there is a $30 fix that totally eliminates the problem.

But back to the fork. Under moderate to heavy braking, my fork chatters *massively*. The axle is moving back and forth up to 1.5 inches (!) in violent spasms. I'm still able to ride, by heavily biasing my braking to the rear and thereby avoiding inducing the chatter, but this behavior seems unacceptable to me. This chatter has occurred pretty much the same despite multiple changes in brake pads (including Kool-Stop salmons), toe-in, rims, brake stiffener arches, etc.

I like the frame, but the fork is a serious problem. I've consider uprgading to another fork, but finding an off-the-shelf model w/ 40mm rake to match the Kelly is virtually impossible. I could go custom steel, but should I really need to fork out (pun intended) $250 for a fork because Kelly under-designs theirs??

So I just ordered a Nashbar-labelled Winwood, on sale plus their $20 discount thing, so I'll get it in hand for $130. It's a 45mm rake, which yields 58mm trail assuming a 69cm tire (32-35C) which is less trail then I would prefer for this bike, but I'll see how it rides. If I don't like it I can probably eBay the fork for $100+ and learn a cheap lesson.

I have some other nitpicks, like how Kelly only installs one set of bottle cage braze-ons unless you get the "touring" extras, and the lack of brake housing stop in the rear, and the fact you have to file down a seat collar hanger to get it to work with this frame ... but these are relative details since they have work-arounds.

So ... in summary ... decent frame, decent price, bad fork ...

Hell, Canti's make the fork shudder a bit. Tradeoff for the nice supple ride I guess. I love the green rims. Almost wish I got some with mine.

Avid brakes in particular will make any bike shudder and honk. Get Paul brakes and be done with it.

I own a Kelly Knobby X and love it. No fork chatter here, and I am running Avid Sd-7 V's and diacompe v-brake road levers. My rims are Salsa Delgado X and are new. Stock Avid pads. My bro is riding a Knobby X as well and had some chatter initially with his but once the pads were toed in ever so slightly more and broke in a bit the chatter went away.

Mine is also a the newer frame/fork design with the 1 1/8" steerer and the fork blades are slightly larger at the crown. Road cranks work fine now. That said I'm running an older Race Face Turbine MTN Square taper (36/48) with a 107mm bb spindle and its perfect. The new frame design also has a slightly sloping top tube. Chris will put on an additional single bottle mount for $25. He also said 2 mounts will be standard soon because so many riders use this bike for things other than pure cross racing. My bro is riding the older MTB specific stay model with an ISIS 108mm spindle and Truvativ Firex MTB triple no problem.

Oh yeah, Kelly is manufacturing a cable hangar for the rear so the bike works with cantis on the rear now as well. Its similar to one Dia compe used to manufacture. Its a steel loop about 2" long with a slotted stop brazed to the end that mounts cleanly around the seat collar bolt with no mods. It was available but I didn't get one because I pulled the brakeset from my old Cross Check.