The Two Best Entry Level Tracklocross Bikes

My readership is evenly split between the EU/Britain and the US, so I’ve picked a nice entry-level complete bike for each area. However, with international shipping, I am sure you can get either of them anywhere. Today, we will look at the State 4130 and the Santafixie Wild.

Now, I’ve ridden the State before, but never the Santafixie, so this is my disclaimer. Both appear regularly on Instagram with people enjoying them, and the purple State 4130 seems to have become the bike of choice for r/tracklocross.

4130 for life

Both framesets look fairly similar, and also pretty similar to a Squid So-Ez. I’m going to guess they are all built in the same factory with some small tweaks. The Santafixie Wild is the more “racey” from stack and reach, the Squid So-Ez being the most upright and the State somewhere between the two.

While we are comparing them to the Squid, the Wild comes with canti mounts, and the 4130 comes with bolt holes for road caliper brakes. The Squid frameset comes in both of these variations.

Spec

Both bikes run 46/16 and but the Santafixie comes with 165mm cranks over the 170mm cranks found on the State. My preference would be to have 165mm cranks, so it is nice that on the Wild, which comes as standard, just gives you some extra clearance for pedal strikes, and I find 165mm to be kinder to my knees.

The Santafixie also comes with Shimano branded brakes, Alivio level, and it is nice to see that they haven’t skimped, and this goes a little way to explain the extra price of the Wild.

Tyre-wise, the State has 38mm wide tyres and the Wild has 40mm wide tyres. I like to be confusing, so I prefer narrower tyres, so that is a personal win to the State for me. Both clear 45mm tyres, and that just adds to my belief that the frame and fork are from the same factory.

Honestly, both frames and forks being made of 4130 means that they offer a great upgrade potential, and should you wish, you could go nuts on the spec of these bikes over time, or straight away if you want. This is why they make such good bikes for a beginner, you have great potential for a bike that can grow with you, but as they also come with a freewheel, if you decide tracklocross isn’t for you, then you have a cool commuter.

You can’t go wrong with either of them.

Santafixie reached out to let me know that they are built in different factories, so rather than change the article and be all knowing I thought I’d add a paragraph on saying I got it wrong.

Own your mistakes.