Help with Buzzing Cyclo-cross shortlist?

[Turtle Dude]

Time to replace my battered old commuting steed with a spanking new shiny cyclo-cross machine - happily spending all of my £1K Cycle2work scheme on the bike (I have all the other bits already).

Commute is all-weather, 3 days a week, 9 miles each way. Moderate hills. Urban poor-condition roads - but can get some speed up. Bike will get used for some weekend touring.

Already have a single-speed/fixie, am after a geared machine - internal hub or de-rail. Disk brakes preferred, but not essential.

Ain't interested in dull hybrids (and dislike flat bars) - I like the buzz of getting to work fast and working hard; but still need robustness, mudguards and the ability to strap a laptop on the back. A lithe road racer would just not take my punishment. Don't mind Ali or Steel frames, but it would need to take some terrible road surfaces without rattling my teeth out.

.. but most of all I want to get to work (reliably) with a bloody big smile on my face.

So what should I put on my shortlist to look at? I already have, from other work colleagues:

- Genesis Day 01 Alfine
- Boardman CX

What else should I put on the list to have a look at and try ?

 

[upsidedown]

I seriously considered a Surly Cross-Check before settling on the LHT. I think the frame's pretty much the same and it takes loads of abuse.
The only thing i changed were the Tektro Oryx brakes to some decent Vs. Might be a bit heavier than a similar aluminium bike but i'm very confident on the terrible roads around where i live.

 

[gaz]

I had the genesis day01 alfine for just under 6 months.
I would personally avoid it. I was having some major issues with my brakes which several shops looked at and none could fix.

The bottom of the line is they use tektro lyra brakes with shimano rotors which are much thiner than the normal rotor. Making what is already a poor disc brake, a really bad one.

More of what happened to me can be read on my blog

 

[Doctor Cake]

I have a Surly CrossxCheck as my do-all bike (regular commuting, leisure rides, longer-haul rides) and I really love it. It's got an incredibly flexible frame, with brazons for racks, mudguards, and loads of clearance for big tyres if you wanted. It's certainly not the lightest bike, but I really appreciate its toughness when I negotiate some of the poorer road surfaces in London.

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

on one pompetine alfine looks good. i saw one in the shop at sheffield. i'm chuffed with quality of my pompino frame and bits.