I have a condor italia with 105 group but am cross curious. Should I swap to a cross frame and use the crosser for road and time trials? Maybe 2 sets of wheels (aero and cross) and clip on tri bars. Perfect all rounder or bodge job? I am not a serious tester and would commute on same bike.

aero wheels make not that much difference unless you are really good and 2sec matter tho?

I'd say a bit of a bodge – the positions are too different. Get a cheap sh steel cross frame and try it

Cross bikes make brilliant winter hacks and ultralight tourers and maybe even sportive bikes (in the UK where we do a a good line in rain and bleak) but I would never consider mine for TTing unless we are only talking about a non serious club 10 done just for a bit of training – in which case I would forget the aero wheels and bars. Think about some touring wheels built for strength for "recreational" cross (and touring if thats your thing – also good for commute) and a pair of normal road wheels shod in 23-25mm rubber instead.

Cross forks are burly and tall in comparison to proper road forks (greater clearances and built to take the hits – I can put 32mm tyres and mudguards with acres of space on mine) with canti brakes sticking out into the airstream, making aero wheels a bit of a nonsense.

I would happily have a cross bike as an only non-competative road bike, but buy a cheapy TT bike if that is important enough for you to own aero wheels.

My old commute route (24 miles each way) was consistently about 10 mins quicker on a road bike than on a cross bike although the CX had some 32mm slicks rather than full roadie tyres.

I've done a couple of Sportives on the cross bike (needed the 34:27 low gear for Hardknott and Wrynose Passes!) but that had proper road tyres on it then. Very comfortable but still slower than a road bike. Could have been a combination of the extra weight, the lower gears and/or the geometry. It's a great bike and really versatile but it doesn't have the instant zip of a road bike.

Personally I think putting aero wheels on a CX would be the equivalent of putting a spoiler on the back of a lorry…

Fair points re the aero wheels. I am only TTing on a local club 10 and am fat and slow so will shelf the aero wheels idea. With that in mind, does this make more sense? I anticipate far more commute and cross miles than tt and road but it's nice to have the option.

See this thread (before the shit slinging started about whether different frame materials can allow flex AND harshness, etc.) for opinions on TT'ing

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/road-bikes-getting-confused

Sure you can TT a CX bike – you can TT a shopper if you want. You are unlikely to win (although I suspect Bradley on a shopper might stand a chance in the club 10) but the point of TT's for most is to beat your own PB, and therefore instead of souping up what isn't designed to be souped up – why not just ride what you have.

In that respect, a CX bike is a reasonably good all rounder, heavier than a road bike and more akin to a sportive geometry but still perfectly rideable. I have 2 sets of wheels for mine mainly to avoid the faff of changing tyres depending on the ride I'm about to do.

theotherjonv, ^^ he speaketh sense. 🙂

I was out marshalling at a club 10 a few weeks ago, there were all sorts of bikes being ridden from top end carbon TT bikes with the full disc wheel/aero setup right through road and sportive bikes to a 1970's racer with downtube shifters.

Anyway, talking of CX bikes, I'm off to use the LBS workshop to get mine sorted for the Three Peaks CX race at the end of the month…

that's a compliment not often passed this way!

Just googleing around on the subject and came across this:

http://www.crumptoncycles.com/carbon_cyclocross.html

Interesting use of deep section wheels on a carbon 'crosser.

I have a proper road bike and a cross bike. The road bike only gets used in decent weather so the cross bike has two sets of wheels – one with road tyres and one with cross ones.

I did a sportive last weekend with a forecast for awful weather (which turned out to be spot on…) so I did it on the cross bike with a longer, lower stem than the usual one and with racy road tyres rather that it's usual road training ones. I very much doubt that I was significantly slower than I'd have been on the road bike.

So for what you're looking at, a set of spare racy tyres and a flip or change of stem would probably be fine if you're not too serious about he racing.

Just doign the maths on this and there's only 250g between the Uncle John frame and the Italia frame. Both with a carbon fork (probably another 200g difference). I think I'm convincing myself that this is a sensible move. Will take a look at the geometry differences though.