Charge Filter Hi

There's no doubting the Charge Filter Hi is a capable bike. It's lively on tarmac and assured off road too. The higher spec bike as tested here has a bit of an identity crisis though. It's not light enough to really be attractive to racers and it's no more versatile than its cheaper stablemate, which looks the better bet if you're after a steel all-rounder.

Charge make most of their range out of Tange Cromoly tubing and the Filter is no exception. It's fashioned from double butted Prestige pipes and the nicely finished black frame is mated to a skinny straight blade fork. There's mountings for mudguards but not a rack, and bottle bosses on the down and seat tubes. All the cables run along the top tube so you can get your shoulder through without snagging the wires.

The Filter Hi comes fitted with SRAM's new Apex groupset, their cheapest offering to date that's set to do battle with Shimano's Tiagra and 105 around the £1,000 mark. Obvioulsy you don't get the dual pivot brakes here – it's Avid Shorty 4 cantilevers instead – but stoppers aside it's the full groupset. An 11-26 cassette is standard spec, as opposed to one of the wider ratio units; Apex goes right up to a 32T cog at the back. Wheels are Charge-branded hubs laced to Alex rims, they're functional and not too weighty shod in Kenda Small Black 8 tyres. FSA kit finished the build, with a Charge Spoon saddle the cherry on the cake.

You'd expect a full steel bike like the Charge to have a bit of life and it's certainly a responsive package. Stick the hammer down on the blacktop and the power transmission through the frame is surprisingly effective, there's a bit of spring but nothing feels vague. The fork, on the other hand, does feel a bit woolly at times, there's a lot of fore/aft flex and the dreaded brake judder comes and goes; it's at its worst in damp conditions. I'd like to see a fork-mounted hanger to remedy that. Once you leave the surfaced routes the fork suddenly makes a lot more sense. The flex that's a bit disconcerting on the road is very useful for tracking over rocks and roots. The frame has lots of clearance for mud, although if there is any you'll be wishing you'd changed the tyres – which are a good all-round compromise but useless in the wet – for something more aggressive.

SRAM's Apex shiftgear worked very well throughout testing. The feel of the shift isn't very different to bigger brother Rival, although the front change can be clunky at times. I didn't have to fettle much with the adjusters despite some very wet and frosty outings, and when I did the front inline adjusters were very useful. Avid's Shorty 4 brakes aren't bad either, although they lack all out power when you really grab a handful. The wheels roll pretty well both on and off the tarmac, and they stayed true in testing despite getting some fairly rough treatment in the woods.

So it's fun in the woods, pretty capable on the roads and nicely put together. But this is the high-spec build of the Filter, specced with knobbly(ish) tyres and no mudguards, unlike its cheaper sibling, so one can only assume that you're meant to actually race on it. And would I choose it as a race iron for those Winter Sundays? Probably not, in all honesty. It's just too heavy.

Look, I know bikes aren't all about weight. I also know that steel can give a nice forgiving ride and comfort is a performance advantage. But this is cyclocross we're talking about, an hour of racing on the red line. It isn't comfortable, no matter what you ride. I'm not ever going to win a CX race (two-thirds of the way down the field is my default position) but even I'd trade the small amount of extra comfort for the kind of weight loss we're talking about for comparatively priced Carbon-forked, Alu-framed bikes. The Charge, at 10.4kg, is about a kilo heavier than the likes of the Cannondale CAADX and the Giant TCX 1, which both squeeze in most of a 105 groupset for the same money. Put the Charge up against them and it simply isn't competitive as a race mount.

This is it seems to us is probably the penalty you pay for having a frame made ot steel, the Filter Hi is not the only steel cross bike we've got in on test that looks heavy by comparison with alu-framed rivals (we're guessing this may have something to do with meeting the CEN standard for frame construction). It's also interesting to note the the Filter is about the same weight as the current build of Tony's Cotic Road Rat which in some ways is a comparable machine.

If you simply want a runabout that'll handle a bit of mucking about in the woods with maybe – maybe – the odd race thrown in then it's a better fit, but to be honest you could go for the cheaper Filter Mid and a spare set of off-road tyres, and lose the mudguards if you did want to give it any Sunday morning outings. If you just want a capable Winter training bike and you're really not planning any actual off road – just the mucky lanes – then Charge's excellent Juicer is well worth a look. None of the Charge bikes have rack mounts on the stays or double eyelets at the dropout though, so if you're thinking of touring – even shifting heavy shopping – you'll want to find a bike that has or get a set of P clips..

Verdict

Fun to ride and capable in the woods, but for this money you can have a dedicated CX racer that's a kilo or more lighter. The Mid spec makes more sense if you're after an all-rounder.