I own a Specialized TriCross. It's a bit heavy but that's because it's nice and strong, needed for towpaths quite frequently so opted for this over a more road-racey bike.
Specialized customer service and warranty service is absolutely outstanding, they answered any emails sent to a general "
hello@specializedUK.com" type address within about 36hours, even the most technical questions.
I have done about 1800 miles and the freehub on my wheel was shot. The problem was the hub and freehub were not "standard", they wouldn't just swap for another off the shelf shimano freehub. In fact, I had to contact Specialized who told me they don't even make these freehubs yet!!
Eventually had to take it to a dealer who replaced the whole wheelset for a slightly better one, free of charge/under warranty. Glad I got that one out the way sooner rather than later.
It seems a lot of people are having problems with Specialized hubs.
This thread and
this one may be of interest to you, particularly the user who opted to have his wheel rebuilt on the same rim (i.e change of hub and freehub) for only £30 - so maybe the hub issue isn't such a big problem after all.
Other than these mechanical woes, I love my tricross, I find it a flexible bike. I commute with big panniers, carrying lots of kit, I can take it down a canal towpath and rely on it's 36 spoke wheels to get me where I'm going even when I need to, as usual, take lots of kit. Meanwhile I can take those all off and I get something that can hold its own on club runs.
Other than the derailleur snapping, and tbh that was probably due to me not replacing the freehub due to the hassle involved (and the fact that I was too busy riding it everywhere having fun), I have found the bike to be very reliable. Other than punctures, which I resolved by sliming my innertubes; and having my cones come loose about every 100 miles until I discovered the joys of threadlock, I have had no mechanical problems with it. Specialized seem to have quite a reputation amongst mountain bikers, so I guess that after decades of building stuff to throw down the side of a mountain, the reliability aspect of roadbikes is taken care of.
So in summary - check out the hub/freehub: I'd definitely email specialized and ask them what freehub is on it, whether it's a standard freehub you can replace with another off the shelf or whether it has to come from Specialized themselves, and whether Specialized actually make them and at what price.... then rest assured that their customer service is outstanding and warranty seems to be quite comprehensive also.
I had a flexible-ish budget but, despite traipsing around every bike shop in London, couldn't find anything else as light and quick as the Sirrus, which I got for £450 locally in the end
