Cyclocross vs Road

[jimmyVX]

I was looking at picking up a cheapish road bike to compliment my MTB for a bit of general fitness work and perhaps a commute to work (once we have some showers installed). I have never ridden a road bike and I don't think I will get along with using dropped bars, but time will tell.

I must confess to not knowing much about road bike and after doing a little research I came across a few cyclocross bikes which look quite interesting.

Firstly, as a bike for a bit of road, cycle paths, tow path and commuting it looks to be ideal. A little more rugged than a roadie but still much more road orientated than riding my full sus MTB.

I need to go and sit/ride a couple but is there anything else I should know? Can you get a slick road tyre in their size (if I wanted one)? I guess the geometry is a little in between an MTB and road bike?

Any advice greatly received, thanks.

[TwistingMyMelon]

Seem quite popular for the uses you describe

Some people say they are the most versatile bike they ever bought, others say they were not that great as they missed their MTB on the rough stuff and missed the road bike on the road

Yes you can fit slicks , standard road tyres should go on

Drop bars are easy, they take time and core to fully use though, using the hoods is fine, no need to be scared of them

"proper" CX bikes can have quite low gearing (46 big ring from memory) which can be tiresome if using for road use, lots come with compact ratios (50/34) which will be fine and best all round

[Magic919]

You can get smoother tyres. It's hard to be definitive regarding geometry when there are various bike types that get labelled cyclocross. Just make sure you are comfortable. I had to buy a smaller size compared to my road bikes.

Check the stand over height as that is fixed. Things like reach can be adjusted, within reason.

[thepawbroon]

Hi,

I can give you my perspective from 3.5 years and 5500+km on a Revolution Cross, which is a kind of cheap Cyclocross bike, but more for leisure use than actual CX racing. Tyres are really the key issue for it's "performance". It came with 33mm wide Maxxis Raze tyres which are off-road knobbly pattern.

Anyway, I bought it for commuting which is 23 km each way, almost all on the road. After a few weeks I bought road tyres (25mm somethings), got a few punctures and eventually settled on 25mm Gatorskins (slick road tyres). Since then it has completed a few 80-100km road sportives, and a 3 day / 400km London - Den Haag charity ride, many Sunday morning road rides (50-80km at 25km/h average) as well as getting loaded up with mudguards and panniers for the daily commute. I'd only done a few minor off road rides until a couple of weeks ago.

So it really is a true all-rounder.

Good things I like are:

• It's tough, strong and so far, reliable
• It has cross-top brake levers (helps my sore back and visibility when commuting)
• It's got lots of room for guards and panniers
• It's fairly relaxed/comfortable geometry (compared to a pure road bike)

Things for improvement:

• It's quite heavy
• I'd prefer disc brakes for wet days and off-road
• The original wheels weren't very strong

In January this year I bought a pure road bike (Planet X Pro Carbon) which now wears the Gatorskins and gets used for the road rides / sportives. I've now fitted 28mm Schwalbe Marathon Plus (touring tyres) to the Revolution Cross for commuting which are a good compromise for comfort / speed / puncture proof.

I also have a second set of wheels, to which I've fitted the off-road tyres. The last couple of weeks I've tried some off-roading round Surrey which has been pretty good fun. If you're on Strava then here is my route from Sunday: https://www.strava.com/activities/380797574 That was 1/3 off-road.

As you might expect, on firmer loose tracks it's great, handling is fine and stable. There's just enough grip - I'm pretty heavy so I run fairly high pressures to avoid punctures - I bet if I dropped the pressures there would be loads of grip. It's not so good in the mud, as you might expect on 33mm tyres compared to 2" or so on a mountain bike. Downhills are a bit harder, there's no suspension and my weight is further forward than a MTB. I haven't had a MTB for a few years (had a 1999 vintage Marin Palisades which got stolen 4 years ago) so I'm not up to date with MTB performance and technology. But I felt that for that mixed surface route, my Revolution Cross was just fine. A lighter CX with disc brakes would have been amazing.

In general, CX bikes (and now so-called Adventure Bikes and Gravel Racer bikes) have geometry more like road bikes than MTB, but can cover most of the off-road ground a MTB can with the right tyres. Perhaps slower on some and quicker on others. On the road, compared to road bikes on road tyres, there's not a lot of difference.

There is a large and growing choice of CX-type bikes and the prices are improving. A popular choice has been the Boardman CX Team, which is on offer at the moment at Halfords.

A bit of a ramble, but hope that helps!

Good luck and happy riding.....

[S10GTA]

I went out on my cross bike last night and was chatting with a bloke on a MTB who had never heard of cross bikes. I summed up my cross bike by saying its not perfect off road, its not perfect on road, but its a good compromise for both.

[jimmyVX]

Thanks all for the feedback, I think it might be a good option as my first foray into something resembling a road bike.

I have spotted a 2015 Genesis CDA 10 which looks to be pretty good value as many stockist have it reduced, I guess due to a change of model year. I might try to borrow one and see where it goes from there.

[chris7676]

I have just done it this Sat...
That after finding myself more on the smooth surfaces across various parks and fighting the wind at speed.

1st impressions:

• It's still a bike that you should be able to ride
• The steering feels very responsive and sensitive, but no problem with that
• I like the new more aerodynamic position which is actually comfortable too
• It accelerates much easier than the MTB (much more than a few kilogram difference would suggest)
• The ride feels smoother than I expected in spite of just 32mm tyres pumped to probably 60-70 psi
• Quick release wheels and the disc brakes really mean quick release which is great for transporting or storage

But:

• The 10 rear gears seem annoyingly close by, so I tend to change 2 in a go. But i'm sure it makes sense for a more serious cyclist doing lots of miles.
• The gear change is not particularly smoother than the MTB
• The dual piston mechanical brakes are not really better than the classic v brakes on my much cheaper MTB

I went for Fuji 1.1 Tread. It's actually very similar to the road Fuji I sat on (brakes / tyres would be the key difference).
Very nice bike, even if I wonder why it costs so much more than my old MTB.
Generally very happy though after the weekend

[Magic919]

I think the cable disc brakes on my Boardman CX don't have the bite of the Hope hydraulics on my Whyte. The cable ones work well, but need more pressure to do so. Maybe the TRP Hy/Rd would be better, but I've not tried them (yet).

[jimmyVX]

I have bitten the bullet and bought the Genesis after sitting on a very similar model in a local bike shop. Seemed to be a comfy position to sit in, lets see if I can now get a few miles under my belt!

[BGarside]

Planning a 'Cross bike for winter club runs, for the extra tyre/mudguard clearance and disc brakes, but I need a triple chainset and straight bars so am considering building a bike based on a Croix de Fer frameset.

Not that light I guess, being steel, but the complete bike seems to get good reviews.