It doesn't take much: a bike with a smooth ride, an ergonomically perfect, relaxed riding position, effective gears that have uphill and downhill potential, sensitive and, if necessary, powerful brakes and lightweight tyres with good grip. Just like the Ghost Square cross bike.
The slimmed-down wheel dispenses with everything that is not absolutely necessary.
And it does a lot of things right. Because there is no compromise on a high level of riding safety, comfort, simplicity and, as a consequence, riding enjoyment. This starts with the frame. The voluminous aluminium tubes are neatly welded in double layers (smooth welding). Large diameters and a tapered head tube generate high rigidity, while an air-sprung, efficiently adjustable suspension fork, also with a tapered steerer tube, effectively decouples the front wheel from rough ground.
The damping and rolling comfort of the Conti Speedride tyres are also astonishingly high.
The lightweight 42 mm tyres run at around 3.5 bar with a rider weight of 72 kilos, and are so full and smacking that it is pure joy. However, their diamond tread pattern with its characteristic whistle leads to an early - but not critical - loss of grip when braking hard on the rear wheel. In the drivetrain, a SRAM rear derailleur throws the chain quickly back and forth between 11 sprockets. There are enough gears available for normal riding situations. The only pity is that the jumps between the gears are sometimes larger than usual, which can be noticeable on long uphill stretches. With only one shifter on the handlebars, the right thumb is put under a lot of strain: You can shift up to four gears with a single lever movement uphill, into smaller gears, but only ever trigger one gear jump downhill into larger gears using the SRAM-specific trigger button. For newcomers, the idle left hand twitches a little at first, but this soon subsides. So 1x11 has some advantages, but also some disadvantages. However, manufacturers undeniably benefit from the new single shifting groupsets due to the lower assembly costs. With five- to six-figure quantities, this definitely pays off. So be it for them: 1x11 suits the simple Square Cross quite well. If you want, you can easily upgrade the bike with mudguards and a rack. But the same applies to leisure cycling: it's most fun naked!
The complete article was published in Trekkingbike issue 1/2018. You can download the issue in the MYBIKE app (iTunes and Google Play ) or in the DK-Shop order.
