Cx as winter bike?

Rhod81

Morning all,

Im in need of a 2nd road bike for winter/poor condition type use.

Initially i was looking at cheap road bikes (£300-400ish), but the problems there such as limited tyre clearance and proper bosses for mudguards made it seem pointless.

I then looked at Wiggle http://www.wiggle.co.uk/verenti-substan ... sora-2014/ this seems reasonable to me price-wise, can take mudguards, seems a bit more rugged and looks pretty good too. I realise Sora is the low end component wise, but im guessing its fairly functional gear.

Is the gearing on a cx bike more like a road bike, or a cross between a mtb and road? I would like gearing similar to my road bike as when im riding the mtb on roads im forever spinning out

Cheers

ugo.santalucia

Rhod81 wrote:

Is the gearing on a cx bike more like a road bike, or a cross between a mtb and road? I would like gearing similar to my road bike as when im riding the mtb on roads im forever spinning out

Cheers

More like a road bike, I hardly notice the difference... in fact I love the 36 x 46 and I think it's the best combination ever.... pair it with a big cassette and you can go pretty much anywhere too

ravey1981

I have that bike and I bought it for the same reason, to dabble in cx and to use as a winter bike. It does the job well, I was pleasantly surprised at how well the Sora groupset works as I am used to Ultegra on my main road bike, shifts are decent enough and as long as cables are kept clean and lubed they should stay that way. Definitely better than subjecting a high end groupset to winter road crap and mud. It comes with a standard compact chainset 50-34 rather than cx rings so there will be no issues with spinning out! It does have a 11-30 on the back though so hills are a little easier than on a road bike (generally either a 25 or 28t). It is a bit heavy at 25lb but that seems to be about what you get for this money, and the steel fork is pretty harsh over very rough terrain, for general use its fine. Mudguards fit fine although you need to use a pclip on the lefthand fork leg as the boss is completely blocked by the disc mount/caliper.

I did buy mine cheap secondhand so it was an even better buy considering it came with a set of guards and a set of wide slicks for road use as well.

viewtopic.php?f=40114&t=12999046

ugo.santalucia

The spinning out with a 46 ring is nonsense to be honest... 46 x 11 at 32 mph you are spinning at 98 rpm and at 35 mph you are spinning at 107 rpm

How often do you pedal at 35 mph?

Rhod81

ugo.santalucia wrote:

The spinning out with a 46 ring is nonsense to be honest... 46 x 11 at 32 mph you are spinning at 98 rpm and at 35 mph you are spinning at 107 rpm

How often do you pedal at 35 mph?

Maybe a slight exaggeration, but when used to a road bike with an avg cadence of 100, maxing out 180 and being able to maintain upper 20's on the flat quite easily, then - with some of the downhills round here - i do 35+ fairly often.

Rhod81

Thanks for your input Ravey... The more i read, the more it appeals.

Tbh, i would probably rarely take it off-road (thats what the mtb is for after all), but it would be nice to have the ability to if i wanted.

Thanks for the in-depth comment :-)

ugo.santalucia

Rhod81 wrote:

with some of the downhills round here - i do 35+ fairly often.

The question is.. do you still pedal at 35 mph or you just coast? I normally don't... I don't see many people pedalling downhill over 35mph

Anyway, if you like to pedal downhill at 40 mph and that's clearly an issue for you, then you need a big ring at the front innit?

Simple tool here

http://www.machars.net/bikecalc.htm

ravey1981

Rhod81 wrote:

Thanks for your input Ravey... The more i read, the more it appeals.

Tbh, i would probably rarely take it off-road (thats what the mtb is for after all), but it would be nice to have the ability to if i wanted.

Thanks for the in-depth comment :-)

No problem, the biggest issue is that it only seems to be available in small?? And Ugo, no, I've never been able to a spin out a 50-11 either for more than a handful of seconds, I'm not that talented. In fact realistically, I never regularly spin out 44-11 on my MTB either.

keef66

I've just put a 46/36 CX chainset on my winter bike and I'm loving it. Recent gales have seen me spending a lot of time in the 36 ring anyway, and there are few hills round here that see me spinning out in the 46. And if that happens, like Ugo, I'll just tuck in and take a breather.