Road/fitness bike or cyclo-cross?

DCbiker

I am looking to buy a road/fitness bike where I can hit the bike trails (mostly paved with some bridges and short dirt paths) 10-18+ miles on the weekends. I have been looking at the Trek Fitness 7.1 or 7.3 FX models as well as the Cannondale Quick 6. I also heard a cyclocross would be a good choice so I test rode a Felt F95 and liked it as well.

Bottom line, I am looking for speed, ease of peddling, and a bike that would be comfortable enough for a 18+ mile bike ride on a nice weekend day. I'm not looking to do any kind of racing or whatnot though. I am a mountain bike rider and it'll be a tough transition for me to use a pure road bike...

What say you?

macondo01

I say buy a cyclocross bike. Reckon it'd fit the bill just right for you. They do a lot of things and I think are great fun. I commute on mine, ride by the river, go on trails with the kids...It's ACE. Sure its not a thorough bred race machine but you're not looking that.

Variado

If the budget allows it, a very flexible option is to have a CX bike with two sets of wheels - I have one set with 700x35 cyclocross tyres on and another with 700x28 road tyres. I just put on whatever set suits my ride - for me the CX bike is a wet weather/rough road second bike, have a road bike too. Obviously you could just swap tyres, a full second wheelset is just convenience to allow me to swap over in a couple of minutes.

My second set are Fulcrum 7s, cost around £80 used from a mate, I already had the tyres and spare cassette.

spinndrift

I've just got a Fuji Cross Pro (on Thursday) and it's been a revelation.

I used to have road and mountain bikes but had an accident in 1998 which resulted in me not riding until last year and being a fat knacker. Started on an old GT Talera last August and spent the last three months deciding what type of bike would be best for me and came to the the conclusion that CX was the way to go.

Like Variado mentions a second set of wheels for purely road use seems a sensible idea.

Anonymous

CX bike.

If you get the road bug you can just change the tyres too.

spinndrift

Forgot to say I'm running Ritchey tyres which have a relatively smooth centre tread and pumped up to 75psi they're reasonably nippy.

DCbiker

i think i've decided to go with the felt f95 cyclo-cross. thanks guys!