Cross Bike as main road bike?

adamfo

I've noticed that cross bikes sometimes get heavily discounted in the sales. Not sure why, presumably it's a niche sector and stock control is difficult.

lewiskinch

I ride my CX bike as my only bike, slicks for road rides and knobblies for cx. Also swap the pedals over. I've got nothing to compare it to really, but I don't think a like for like comparison would be that much different. Sure, if you have heavy wheels and lower gearing then you will be slower. I run 50/34 on mine, will probably change to 52/36 as I never use my big ring for cx anyway.

Jon_1976

I have a Tricross as my only bike, previously had an Allez. The Allez had reasonable wheels and tyres (racing 5 and gp4000s 25mm) so was relatively easy to get going. The Tricross in stock form with 32mm knobbly tyres is obviously more sluggish and harder work. I enjoy the tricross way more, the ability to go off road is great and the relaxed geo means I can use the drops for much longer periods. Disc brakes are an added bonus. I put some road tyres (28mm 4 season) and i honestly would say its hardly any different to the Allez. Looks a bit weird with road slicks though 8)

Monty Dog

My CX race bike is 17lbs and is as light as my road race bike - with road wheels / tyres it's as quick over the road as any road bike - the limiting factor mainly being the 46 chainring and 13 sprocket which means I rarely win the bunch sprints for the village signs!

2oldnslow

+1

my carbon Focus Mares CX1 with the same wheels fitted is barely heavier (and even more comfortable) than my Bianchi Infinito. Having ridden a number of multi-day sportives on the Focus I put my Bianchi frameset up for sale!

bobley

springtide9 wrote:

The only real noticeable difference when riding are the wheels are slow to get up to speed - mainly down to the stock wheels of the XLS are not far off 2.5kg. I think once I've swapped them with a lighter set of wheels (1700g) the difference will be even less.

I normally ride to work on a Boardman Team carbon fitted with Conti GP4000s 4 season tyres but otherwise stock. Today I was concerned that it was a bit frosty so it felt right to take my XLS and go the scenic route. I bought the XLS about 6 weeks ago and only commuted on it once. The stock Shimano RX05 wheels weigh 2.2 kilos and with all the disks, cassette and tyres were 3.7 kilos (320g folding Racing Ralphs). I did buy some Schwalbe marathons thinking I could use them as a safe set of commuter tyres but they're 600g each - I could barely lift the bike! Anyway, I bought a set of Stans Iron Cross 2 weeks ago and fitted Clement PDX 33mm tubelessly with Avid HS1 disks. That now saves me a kilo and the bike is wonderful on the gooey climbs (although it does wheelie a bit, I need to recalibrate). So today I was going to switch tyres but ran out of time and just took it on the Stans/PDX. Wow, 35psi and I loved it. Marginally slower on the 1miles of tarmac but sooo plush and then the last 4 miles on muck/grass/gravel were awesome. I didn't want to stop when I got to work.

I think I would normally still go for the road bike but the CX even on nobblies was very pleasant.

drummer_boy

For my winter, road only, commute I've fitted my Planet X XLS XC with 28MM Schwalbe Marathons, and some SKS race guards and I'm good to go.

Commute is 11miles each way, on country roads and a few hills. I had previously borrowed a friends Alloy road bike, and it feels about the same speed, but more comfortable.

When summer comes back around I can do a 15 mile commute home, including 10 miles of canal tow path and 3 miles of country park, so the guards come off and the knobblies go back on. Way more fun to be had. :twisted:

Clank

My main road bike was a CX (Empella Bonfire) and it got used for long rides, commuting and occasional hooning about off-road (my local trails are very CX friendly, if you can cope with the mud).

I had no real problems with the gearing (36-46 front, 12-30 rear) and managed 47mph dropping down into Buxton on 32mm Kenda's. That was fast enough for me!

The CX was half-inched in June and I'm looking to replace it early next year with another CX bike. An ordinary road bike holds no appeal for me - it's just too limiting. I've been paying very close attention to the £1000 'what bike' threads, but one thing is for certain, having used road brakes, canti's, mini-V's and V's on a range of bikes, it'll be getting disks. Screw the purists - I like stopping in the wet!

simonj

Probably done this the opposite round to many people, but I mainly use a Cannondale SuperX Red as my summer ride - mainly 90-95% road with a bit of canal and rougher paths etc, hence why CX, but it suits my needs very well with mainly 28mm 4 seasons on it. I recently bought a Giant Defy 0 as a winter 100% road ride - put the same wheels and 4 season tyres on it. I went out for a ride over the past few weekends and interestingly looking back at timings doing the exact same road ride I've done on the CX, the alloy Defy road bike is currently 3-4% slightly slower than my CX bike. As I say having a higher end CX than road bike is probably unusual, but for me the CX feels alot plusher and smoother than the Defy.

anonmouse

During the summer when I had the good bike out, a Cervelo S5 and in the autumn when the weather was a bit meh I pulled out a Genesis Day One, it was slightly upgraded with Hope wheels, Ultegra chainset, lighter bars stem, seatpost etc. The gearing on the Day One was 52x14 as I was using it on road. On he same 10mile loop if you take an average of both bikes the Day One was only a few seconds slower than the S5. On an R3 now and get pretty similar results, its more on par with the Day One.

flywheel88

I use mine on the road. Also, was unsure if I should, but have done it anyway. :oops:

AllezAllezAllez wrote:

Does anyone use a Cross bike as their main road bike?

I've been considering a new bike for a while but fancy the flexibility to explore off road that a cross bike offers. However I still want to do plenty of road miles and the odd club run.

I'm presuming for pure road rides I can just change the tyres to slicks? Would a typical 46/36 cause any problems on the road? Any other pros or cons?

DM222

Jon_1976 wrote:

I have a Tricross as my only bike, previously had an Allez. The Allez had reasonable wheels and tyres (racing 5 and gp4000s 25mm) so was relatively easy to get going. The Tricross in stock form with 32mm knobbly tyres is obviously more sluggish and harder work. I enjoy the tricross way more, the ability to go off road is great and the relaxed geo means I can use the drops for much longer periods. Disc brakes are an added bonus. I put some road tyres (28mm 4 season) and i honestly would say its hardly any different to the Allez. Looks a bit weird with road slicks though 8)

Thanks for this - recently sold my Allez and thinking of a cross bike so it's good to hear a decent comparison

cookeeemonster

ok I bought a steel Charge Filter CX for for a ridiculously low price november last year.

It's around 5/6 pounds heavier than my bianchi road bike in stock form...and I added 28mm marathon pluses for my commute (25mm GP4 seasons on the bianchi and both bikes have sora).

So far for my 25 mile round trip there's been no difference in time taken - even though it's noticeably heavier and I have to stop/start constantly for lights/junctions for a good portion of my commute...

...only real difference is it's more comfortable and the canti brakes are better for some reason - though I'd definately get disc brakes for my next major bike purchase (hate that rim scraping/destroying sound in the the rain!!)

So far I dont mind the 46/36 chainset, (11-28 cassette). Dont get as big a jump from one ring to another.

bendertherobot

Rode my Bivio X home today, 1st time.

Love it so much I am seriously contemplating a Terra X being my good road bike.

DM222

My LBS has the Whyte Dorset and Suffolk in stock - not cross bikes but have discs and drops and look really nice!

ugo.santalucia

bendertherobot wrote:

Rode my Bivio X home today, 1st time.

Love it so much I am seriously contemplating a Terra X being my good road bike.

Of course you are aware the Terra is a full on CX racer and doesn't even have bottle cage bosses... But if you ask Condor they might drill them for you

Markjaspi

Just for info. Out of curiousity I've used my new cx bike with my 23mm road tyres to see the difference to the carbon one I was using.

The cx weights in at 9.1kg against 8.1kg all in with pedals/comps/saddle bag and bottle cages, not 100% scientific I know, but average heart rate was similar, cadence was slightly higher, weather conditions where similar as my last run on the carbon bike. But over the 20.9 mile circuit I usually do, I was only 1:24secs slower, not bad really.

Not sure how much difference there is yet over say 50-100 miles and to be honest the past couple of weeks I've not done too much cycling so not as fit as usual, but just thought it was worth mentioning.

Paul 8v

Getting fed up of cleaning the nice bike all the time so I am considering chucking some 27's on the cross bike until the roads clear up a bit more. Essex roads are quite suited to a Roubaix spec tyre!