Need a new disc rear wheel, currently looking like I’ll be going with hope/crest but I’m probably going to use cheaper inexpensive all steel (not an alloy carrier) cassettes at somepoint and worried about chewing up the freehub so any other options? Was wondering about a shimano 29er wheel but my maintenance regime isn’t quite suited to cup and cone and the freehubs on my 26er shimano wheels were a bit short lived. ANy ideas? £200 being my limit.

What gearing are you none racy cxers running? was considering 34or36/46 double with an 11-32 9spd cassette, I’ve used road cassettes offroad on an mtb before and seemed to have to shift 2 or 3 gears at a time, figured a not too wide mtb cassette would be right, dunno tho. been running an SS CX commuter for the last 6months so no idea what to go for, next winter I will either go back to ss or a 1×9 but wanted a full set of gears to tackle some proper hilly rides this year.

GEaring – depends on your riding.

I suspect std cross gearing works for racing but I ride mine as more of an all rounder, 24-36-46 13-26 works well.

hadn’t really considered a triple, forgot to say I’m pinching the STIs off my road bike so double only really.

With a cassette range that narrow do you not end up doing a hell of a lot of front shifts? Guess it depends on the % of tarmac you do as to how close a range you run…?

I use a triple on mine, with a 12 25 on the back. It’s fine for around here DONK. 🙂

34/50 and 12/30 on my Croix De Fer – good for most things unless got panniers on

got a 12-26 and an 11-32 at home so I guess I could have a play around with both, see which feels best. Front is confusing me tho, road compacts run 34/50 a whopping 16 difference, cx seem to be 36/46, weird that they don’t do 34/46 but I guess it could be aimed more at racers who don’t need scrawny 34t chainrings. 50 seems too big for cx too, I’m thinking clearance issues, clipped my 42 on stuff before.

50 seems too big for cx too, I’m thinking clearance issues, clipped my 42 on stuff before

…depends on frame, particularly BB height though.

36/46 and 11-27 but next year will just be a 38 up front.
I have a SRAM Red cassette on my Hope hub and it’s been fine. I know it doesn’t fall into the inexpensive category but still is steel.

Why not go for the steel freehub on a Hope hub?

I’m currently in the process of swapping my CX gearing from 50/34 with 11-32 at the back to 42t front and 11-28 cassette. I might get a 38t front as well for when I need something a bit smaller.

Steel freehub not a bad shout but at £55 kinda negates the cheap cassette. Not sure I’ve seen steel freehub option on hope hoops.(hoops are in budget, custom built hopes are over iirc)

Can’t decide on the single chainring approach, like I said may try it for winter but thinking I want some reasonably low gears for the “dry” seasons.

34/50 and 11-32 9 speed double here.

I run it mainly as commuter and offroad bike, but have taken it on 100 mile road rides too.

The gearing’s just what came on it… I had been wondering going for a more roadie CR cassette from a cadence point of view and to lose some weight off the back wheel – not sure if I should or not.

No real plan to race cross on it but I do like the tall front on the road. Day to day I tend to find myself never shifting down to the small ring but the 50 is way too big for an only ring offroad. 1×10 has been an eye opener though – I was told that it’s surprising how quickly you stop wishing there was a granny to bail to and it seems to be true.

Steel freehub not a bad shout but at £55 kinda negates the cheap cassette. Not sure I’ve seen steel freehub option on hope hoops.(hoops are in budget, custom built hopes are over iirc)

Buy the steel free hub and sell the aluminium one, you can usually get a reasonable price for them. Doesn’t work out too expensive that way.
Try Moonglu for good CX custom builds, they might be able to do a good price with the steel freehub.

I run what came on mine, 50/34 up front and 11-32 10spd out back. I use it for everything from city cross to long winter road rides and thrashing single track.

I run what came on mine

wouldnt be surprised if most did this, just can’t seem to find an industry standard, lots of variations. Think ill try to get 34/46 rings and try both the 11-32 and 12-26, see what suits me.

Might look into that notmyrealname, cheers

I’ve been told by CXers that it’s obvious at events who comes from a road background and who from MTB’s.

Is always assumed this was just down to bike handling but maybe choice of kit comes into it too.

I’m betting that the bigger rings and cassette get you a similar range of low ratios with a weight penalty and additional top flexibility (must get round to checking this on a gear calc). I tend to approach mine like I would a 2×10 MTB and mentally have an on and off road 1×9, occasionally straying onto the other ring where possible or required. As it’s not a race bike, I’m not too worried about the weight, more interested up see how ‘different’ a more CX75’y small rings’n’roadie cassette would behave, just not sure in interested enough for the amount of spend involved on what might be a “nah!” with parts I have no other use for…

I’ve been told by CXers that it’s obvious at events who comes from a road background and who from MTB’s.

And it’s often obvious in roadie club runs too… Overtaking guys steadfastly trying to get up a hill on their 53T ring, with their knees about to blow up, whilst spinning away in 34/28 is always quite pleasing! 😉

Different strokes for different folks and all that, but if you’re quick enough to be racing CX at the sharp end, then anything wider than a 12-25 cassette means you’re probably not quick enough. But then by the same token, the fast boys will probably only use a very select few ratios out of their 20 combinations.

For me, a CX bike is more of an allround, versatile bike that can be used for all sorts of activities. Stuck a medium cage MTB mech and 11-36 cassette on mine (with original 36/46 chainset), and it’s way more usable than if it had close ratio gearing. Even on the road, the gear ratio gaps are manageable, the only really big noticable gap being from the 13T cog to the 11T, but by which point you’ve got to be pedalling fast down a hill anyway so it hardly matters.

Just building up a 2nd, nice set of wheels (Hope Pro 2 EVO 40T 28H hubs on Stans Iron Cross rims) for my knobblies, and going to put some 28/32c Durano’s on the original wheels with a slightly closer ratio cassette for road use. At the moment, can’t see much point to having a dedicated road bike for my purposes, so I think the CX bike will get a fair bit of use this coming season.

Ride whatever suits you. I’ve never had the legs for climbing out of the saddle so sit and spin a gear to suit…

Just building up a 2nd, nice set of wheels (Hope Pro 2 EVO 40T 28H hubs on Stans Iron Cross rims) for my knobblies, and going to put some 28/32c Durano’s on the original wheels with a slightly closer ratio cassette for road use.

Interested… Would you be changing chains with cassette or letting the derailleur cope with a bit of extra chain? Or do you mean closer ratios for same tooth difference biggest cog?

OP, sorry for hijack… 🙂

I’ve been told by CXers that it’s obvious at events who comes from a road background and who from MTB’s

[quote]And it’s often obvious in roadie club runs too…[/quote]sorry you’ll need to explain this. At a guess roadies have big rings and close ratio cassettes on their CX bikes. Grinding up hills on a 53T no idea if that’s a roadie or mtb thing, mtbs are used to having low gears but I thought roadies were all “spin it to win it” or is that a new thing.

Vincienup, are you saying you have yours setup for big ring on road little ring offroad with only occasional crossover? Sounds reasonable. On MTBs I’m not normally too fussed about top end speed just winching up the hills and throwing myself down as steep a hill as I can find so 2×9 or SS is fine. CX I will be doing more genteel terrain and treating it like a road bike ie it’s only fun if you flogging yourself to death, so want to be able to spin up and hammer along and down so bigger gear range needed.

Most CX racers will have the choice of several rear set ups. The top ones have several bike set ups.
Me I have 1 bike it has a 50/34 up front in the dry a 12-25 is fine but the last 2 races which were muddy I went to a 12-30 on the back.
Just remember CX racing you dont have long hills so you dont need silly low gears, and if they are steep you carry up them.

I’m totally not a CXer, just make use of a CX bike for similar use to your intended unless I’ve confused threads.

My commute isn’t exactly road – it’s mainly towpath type stuff with cheeky urban at either end so potential for spot of commuter racing from lights, jumping off things up to about a foot or so, hopping kerbs, sliding through mud and a staircase I could try but don’t… 😉 there is a shorter road route and it’s dull. It’s not hardcore, but gives me a nice bunch of linked sprints.

I generally only touch the small ring when I’m caning it around the dark peak in techie XC territory, although steep climbs I’d bail to it. Through the week I never need to. I don’t believe in grinding up things after nearly screwing my knee a few years ago.

Offroad I tend to find the small ring is perfect for almost everything.

Cross chaining doesn’t really seem to be an issue although I’d probably avoid the two middle extremes.

Apart from position and tyre choice I’ve never really ‘set it up’ it’s more that it is what I bought and I was wondering if I’d benefit from drivetrain changes – I’d expect to make more use of both rings if I dropped the front to ‘normal’ CX sizes not the roadie compact that’s there now. Given I do use my 50×11 I’d have a potential speed drop but I’m not as good as I could be with cadence by mile so while I’m not grinding in 50×11 I’m certainly not cranking at anything like the rpm I would be for 50×24 for example. I’m not convinced I’ll see a real world drop with 44×12 or whatever as top.

Interested… Would you be changing chains with cassette or letting the derailleur cope with a bit of extra chain? Or do you mean closer ratios for same tooth difference biggest cog?

Why would I need to swap the chain? I’ll need to keep an eye on chain wear, and change the chain when it gets close to 0.75% stretch otherwise risk wearing out 2 cassettes prematurely, but half the point of a rear mech is to take up the chain slack. With an 11-36 on one wheel, and probably an 11-32 on the other, it’s not having to deal with anything it wouldn’t normally have to.

sorry you’ll need to explain this. At a guess roadies have big rings and close ratio cassettes on their CX bikes. Grinding up hills on a 53T no idea if that’s a roadie or mtb thing, mtbs are used to having low gears but I thought roadies were all “spin it to win it” or is that a new thing.

Spinning up hills on road bikes is a relatively new thing by most roadies standards, introduced predominantly by the drug cheat himself, Lance Armstrong. He continually wore down the likes of Marco Pantani by sitting and spinning a smaller gear at a continuous 100rpm, whilst they were out of the saddle pushing a bigger gear at 65-70rpm going uphill. Chris Froome and Bradley Wiggins both do the same, perhaps even more so, as Bradley Wiggins is known to have used an 11-36 MTB cassette at times to help with his climbing speed in the 2012 TdF!

Next time you see a group of roadies out, check out the bikes. Anything older than 3-4 years old will likely have a 53/39 chainset with probably a 12-25 cassette on the back. Certainly the guys that have been riding for a long time, will tell you that’s all they need. But then you’ve got guys like us, who’ve learnt to spin uphills on Mountain Bikes with low gear ratios, that have got into road riding, and the market has reacted. More and more you’re seeing road bikes not only coming with a 50/34 chainset, but also 12-28, 12-30, or even 12-32 cassettes fitted.

Given that I have a CX bike more as an alternative to an MTB, and will be riding quite a lot of proper offroad on it, I wanted a gear ratio I can just about manage up longer/steeper hills, so fitted a cassette large enough to give me a 1:1 ratio.