Road bike for light cx?

rockmonkeysc

Im wondering if I can use my road bike for light cx riding. Mostly just potholed, gravel tracks and muddy lanes.
Would my Boardman Race be ok with just a pair of cx tyres? Other than Shimano R500 wheels it's all original.
Are cx tyres much slower on tarmac?
My reason for wanting to do this is to get a more interesting and traffic free commute to work.

How Far is too Far

The bike should be strong enough, but clearance for larger tyres will be your problem.

Initialised

Don't worry about it, I ride 23mms, big gravel (1" rocks), rooty or rocky single track, wet grass and mud cause problems.

I tend to get up out of the seat and let the bike float over while my arms and legs behave as multilink suspension.

You should be able to go bigger but try it, if you're losing traction get bigger tyres or just drop your tyre pressures towards or a little below the minimum recommended.

The main consideration should be the extra dust, grit, mud and water thrown at your bike's delicates, clean and lube it a bit more often and you'll be OK but wear will be higher overall.

Monty Dog

Bike will be fine - tyre clearance will be the issue, most road frames struggle to accept anything bigger than 25mm and mud will pack under the brake calipers forcing you to a halt.

rockmonkeysc

Tyre clearance isn't actually too tight. Are cx tyres a lot slower on tarmac?

veronese68

RockmonkeySC wrote:

Tyre clearance isn't actually too tight. Are cx tyres a lot slower on tarmac?

Depends which ones you go for, get something with a file tread in the middle and side knobs and you'll be fine. Something like this, although you may well need a thinner version of something similar. I use Vittoria Randonneur Cross Pro in 32mm, although they do a 27mm as well, and they roll fine on road and are pretty good on gravel paths and such like, but not too hot in mud.

drummer_boy

I come at this from the other way. I only put CX tyres on when I need real off road traction up hill. the reast of the time I run with 28mm Schwalbe marathons, including during my daily towpath, off road trail, commute.

No problems at all.

cougie

You really dont want proper knobbly CX tyres on for that kind of riding.

As the others have said - a normal road bike will be fine. My road bike with tight clearance and guards does clog up with mud though. Look at what road bikes cope with on the Strave Bianche, or Paris Roubaix ?

Slightly wider tyres and you should be good to go. The Marathons are bombproof, but are a heavy tyre. I suspect thats worth it for a commute though.

rockmonkeysc

Thanks for the tips. To be honest, if I was using a mountain bike on the same cycle route I would want slicks on it so maybe just a tougher slick 25mm road tyre would do the job. I might try some Conti gatorskins.