Converting a Road Bike to Cyclo X

Alexei

My Winter bike - a Cannondale R500 has hardly been off its hangar in a year...what I want to know is how easy it would be to convert to to a crosser...and how easy it may be..I'm a pretty useless mechanic, so is it worth taking into the lbs and telling them what I want done, all I need is brakes changed and bigger tyres.....dont I?

Ideas and thoughts welcome.

munster

Does it already have canti mounts then?
If not then you're going to be struggling due to the clearance issues i.e. tyre to fork crown and calipers to tyre/rim. It will clog up quickly on a muddy day!
I'm sure, somewhere, I saw some bolt on canti mounts but I don't know if they actually work or not!
There are a few other issues but the canti mounts and clearance are the main ones.
Hope that helps.

pete.whelan

can you get knobbly 700 x 28 - 34mm tyres in the frame and forks and still have 20mm clearance

jpembroke

I think this is a non-starter. The R500 is a road bike - it doesn't have canti mounts or the clearance for cross tyres. Even if you put a Cross fork on the front you still wouldn't have the clearance at the rear. Can I ask why you want a 'cross bike? Do you want to race Cyclocross? The reason I ask is that once you have a bike set up for 'cross it's not a great deal of use for anything else (unless you have a spare set of wheels so you can quickly change it over to a road bike). Your best plan of action may be to enter a local 'cross race (season is coming to a close so be quick) on an MTB and see how you get on. If you have no plans to do any 'cross racing then stick with the R500 as winter trainer - it'll be way more practical.