Road or Cyclo-cross?
seventy2
Posts: 10
I'm thinking of making the transition from being a single bike owner to getting a road bike for my daily cycle, and keeping the MTB for purely harsh conditions.
My employer is signed up to http://www.cyclescheme.co.uk so having a second bike (cough, only bike as far as they are concerned) is now an option.
Based on the discount being somewhere in the region of 45% I can look at bikes around the 600/700 pound mark, which is something I only could have dreamt of before, but after doing some reading I'm not sure whether I should go for a strictly road bike or to whether a cyclo-cross might be an option.
Seems to me they are pretty much road bikes with stronger forks, better clearance and more rugged tyres.
The prospect of still being able to handle a little bit of off-road is appealing, but I wonder if I should just go for road unless I'm genuinely going to take part in ACTUAL cyclo-cross.
Advice? Thoughts?
Much appreciated.
My employer is signed up to http://www.cyclescheme.co.uk so having a second bike (cough, only bike as far as they are concerned) is now an option.
Based on the discount being somewhere in the region of 45% I can look at bikes around the 600/700 pound mark, which is something I only could have dreamt of before, but after doing some reading I'm not sure whether I should go for a strictly road bike or to whether a cyclo-cross might be an option.
Seems to me they are pretty much road bikes with stronger forks, better clearance and more rugged tyres.
The prospect of still being able to handle a little bit of off-road is appealing, but I wonder if I should just go for road unless I'm genuinely going to take part in ACTUAL cyclo-cross.
Advice? Thoughts?
Much appreciated.
0
Comments
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If you think you're ever only going to use it on the road, then a full on road bike is the way to go. However it sounds like you want a bit of an all rounder, in which case I'd go with a crosser. I have a "proper" road bike for my usual riding, but bought a Planet X Uncle John last year to use as a winter bike with the intention of doing a bit of cross as well.
With normal road tyres on it performed superbly as a winter bike, keeping up on the club runs etc. The Uncle John has a fixings for a luggage rack, so I also used it for a 70 mile round trip commute to work loaded with panniers. Change the tyres, and it's great for an off road blast or a cross race.
I wouldn't be without it now, and god forbid I had to have only one bike, it's probably be a crosser
My bikes - http://flickr.com/photos/82587774@N00/0 -
CX bikes are becoming more popular, they aren't just for the cross, indeed many of my clubmates ride them instead of MTB's all the time, most places an MTB can go, so can a cross bike as long as you have the skill to control it, which you don't need so much with an MTB. Also look at the Kinesis Crosslite which is excellent value for money. I don't own a cross bike myself yet but it will be my next major purchase as I look on my clubmates with envy on off-road rides when they are on their crossers and I am on my MTB with a single place to put my hands.0
