cross bike on the road.

matt.rochfort

Here's one to chew on.

Are there any real disadvantages to riding a cross bike frame set up as a road bike with 23mm tyres? Is there much of a weight penalty? weighing in at 13 stone would i notice the difference of a few pounds? What about the cantilever brakes - more or less powerful than standard road brakes. What brakes would work with veloce gruppo? Do most frames have 'guard eyelets. Would this make the best sort of do it all bikes for winter commuting and summer sportives?

any ideas/comments/suggetsions?

ride_whenever

'cross bikes make good commuters, just look at the number of uncle johns and tricrosses...

They aren't a huge amount slower and usually have better clearance for mudguards etc.

They are also a bit more stable so feel nicer in traffic.

Hudster

I often ride my cross bike on the road as my commuter and winter trainer. It's fine and fast and you can keep with guys on road race bikes. But it's not as nice to ride as a dedicated road bike, feeling slower steering and not as smooth, zippy ride. The brakes are terrible in comparison, although I think mine are particularly bad examples. I have a slightly shorter more upright position on it also, so would change the stem if it was my only bike and I was using on the road for great distance.

Mister W

My winter bike has cantis on the front and mini-v brakes on the back and they're excellent. As good, if not better, than the dual pivot brakes on my race bike. Given the choice I'd have cantis all round as the mini-v are a bit of a pain to set up.

The Avid Shorty cantis are a popular choice for use with road levers.

Monty Dog

I have a cross bike that is regularly used both on an off road - it has disc brakes and takes MTB wheels for offroad and snowy conditions, or I fit a pair of 700c wheels with touring tyres for more on-road than off. I have fitted fast road tyres and used it for chaingangs and fast group rides too - if I could only have one bike it would be probably be like this. Yes the steering is slightly slower - depends on the model of frame - many have a slightly higher BB for clearance too, which affects handling too. It has cage bosses, rack and mudguard mounts. Cantilever brakes or mini-vees will work with Veloce Ergos - but set-up is critical if you want good power without screaming the place down and avoiding judder. Traditional 'cross cantis like Tektro 520s are better for mud clearance and take vee-type cartridge brake shoes which offer better adjustment and alignment - post mount brake pads on many cantis are a mechanical nightmare. Many specialist cross frames lack bottle cage mounts and mudguard/rack eyes - check the frame spec, but most recent ones do reflecting their versatility and increasing popularity. The downside is the weight - but you can get carbon frames these days not much heavier than a decent road frame.

jimmcdonnell

My day-to-day commute is Focus Cross Disc. It's the perfect combo of road bike with MTB braking, which is exactly what I was after. I took the knobbly cross tyres off and put 25 section Schwalbe puncture-resistant road tyres on, now it weighs in at 11kg - I'd say that's pretty average for a commuter bike? It's nippy too - I think I can tell the difference between it and my Litespeed (at 8kg), but it could be my imagination...

And remember - if you want to trim some weight off your bike, you should lose a stone yourself - that's what I've been trying to do anyway (13+ stone too)

It works for me. 'cross bikes are the new singlespeeds, I say!

redddraggon

I reckon they are a good choice, but not all have bottle cage mounts.

Ken Night

matt.rochfort wrote:

Would this make the best sort of do it all bikes for winter commuting and summer sportives?

any ideas/comments/suggetsions?

Monty says if he could only have one bike, his Ti disc braked crosser would be it. I also have one, and feel the same way about mine-just change the tyres, and you have a different bike

I have used mine for commuting along the crappy Devon lanes, light touring, day rides, cross races, and sportives

It was at no disadvantage on a sportive, and in some ways the enhanced braking was an advantage. Even with discs, it's below 20lbs (my Litespeed is 17lbs) and for the comfort/braking/gearing it's worth it

I don't suppose mine would be defined as a full on crosser.....it has bottle cage mounts/ MG eyes. It also has a relatively normal top tube. Crossers have short top tubes generally

The current incarnation of the one I have is the Van Nicholas Amazon

If you're planning on running Campag, you'll have problems running discs. When I built mine, there was only one Campag compatible, disc hubset If discs are the direction you want to go, search for "disc braked crossers" "disc brakes and ergo levers" etc in the forum-quite a few threads in the last couple of years

The Mares Cross appears to be stunning value

andrew_s

Ken Night wrote:

If you're planning on running Campag, you'll have problems running discs. When I built mine, there was only one Campag compatible, disc hubset If discs are the direction you want to go, search for "disc braked crossers" "disc brakes and ergo levers" etc in the forum-quite a few threads in the last couple of years

If you want ergos and disk brakes, you could look at using a Shimano rear mech and 8 or 9 cassette (google shimergo), or get a jtek shiftmate and run a shimano 10 cassette.

Ken Night

andrew_s wrote:

If you want ergos and disk brakes, you could look at using a Shimano rear mech and 8 or 9 cassette (google shimergo), or get a jtek shiftmate and run a shimano 10 cassette.

Or you can use the Evolution 10spd Campag cassette(made with Shimano splines) with ergos and full Campag drive train

You still have the 130/135mm rear hub and spacing to think about

For the record, I run ergos with Shimano 8spd cassette on a 135mm XT hub (spacing onthe frame was designed at 132.5mm)-perfect indexing, and I reckon the 8spd chain wears better than a 10spd

Tom Butcher

Unless you want to go off road why not go for a fast audax style bike like that new Kinesis, the old Principia RSLAS or a mate of mine has just bought a GIant SCR1 (I think). All have mudguard eyes and bottle cage mounts and are designed for road rather than off road. Or you could just get a Ribble winter trainer - you don't see many cross bikes around for that sort of money and it'll come with road tyres, bottle cage mounts, guards etc

Monty Dog

Like Ken, I'm running 8 speed on an XT hub. Many people are running Shimano 10 speed wheels / cassettes with Campagnolo 10 drivetrains these days - not quite perfect but good enough. Apart from DT Swiss, I don't think you'll find a rear disc hub with a Campagnolo freehub. Having the bigger tyre clearances to fit cross tyres for a bit of offroading is a big plus - singletracking on a cross-bike reminds me of what it first felt to ride an MTB, not one of those heavy, over-complicated full sussers that bounce all over the place! As for an audax bike - don't forget to grow a beard and get a cotton duck saddlebag too.