I have some fairly slick tyres on my CX bike which were terrifying off road in the mud, but are great on tarmac and tracks. I also have a set of 29er Crossride wheels I won in a competition. Is there any reason I can’t put some nobbly tyres on and use them as a second set of wheels for my CX bike. Are there any issues with having two cassettes? Will I need to re-index the brakes every time I swap the wheels over?
Thank you for any advice. Sorry if this is all obvious.

Some times you can swap without issue between sets other times it means setting the disc brakes and gears up why not try it in a stand and see? It’s gotta be worth the 20mins swapping the cassette and disc over to find out.

Check the spacing, are both wheels 135(mtb) or 130(road)?

Even if they are different, you might be OK – I did it for a while on a Whyte CX bike, swapping between 130 and 135 wheels. It wasn’t 100% perfect in terms of indexing and brake rub but it was acceptable (to me anyway).

However, the biggest thing was cassette wear if you use one more than the other – I ended up with skipping chains.

Swapping a cassette over takes seconds. You might be lucky with the hub/brake too but, if not, that’s usually a quick adjustment – especially if post mount.

I presumed that it would be the having a different cassette that would cause the biggest issue?
The wheels are brand new and in the box. If I set them up they will lose value should I decide to sell them instead. Hence me asking for advice first.

Why not just some decent tyres to start with?

Why bother faffing with 2 sets of wheels when you can just switch tyres? Or am I missing something?

Sometimes my CX rides are very tarmac based. Sometimes they are completely off road. I was looking for a quick hassle free way to swap between different set ups. I wondered (as I have a spare set of wheels) if it would be quicker to swap wheels over rather than change the tyres two or three times a week.

It’s a reasonable approach, especially if you’re considering tubeless. I’d suggest using the widest of the rims for the off-road tyres.

I thought about this, the advantage of me having a CX bike means i can just jump on it from the door and not have to load up the car before a ride, Admin wise that’s a nightmare.

Faffing about changing wheels, cassettes and fiddling around with bakes ammounts to faffing of muhassive proportions to some who who’s not a natural spanner wielding kind of home mechanic. “Me”

That takes the simplicity out of it for me, opening the garage wheeling it out and riding, Gone……..
So, im about about to donn Thermal bibs, base layers and a jacket, venture into the garage and change the tyres over, see if i can do it without nipping the tube or putting the tyres on the wrong way round.

The wind has whipped quite a bit of moisture off and im itching for some trail riding.

xyeti, I feel the same about my CX bike.

I’m considering just having a second front wheel with a knobbly on it. A bit of rear wheel drift never killed anyone.

Wheels get chopped and changed on my cx bikes all the time. I’ve usually got at least two sets on the go for the bike with discs.

The maximum amount of faff you will have to do is re-align the disc calipers and perhaps turn the rear mech barrel adjuster one way or the other if the cassette spacing is not exactly the same on both.

You may on the other hand get away with doing nothing – I rarely have to re-index, and one caliper on my bike seems more tolerant of wheel swaps than the other.

i do it on a regular basis – kinesis pro6 – despite the wheels having different hubs (makes not width) one set of wheels 32mm tyres with a 12-34 cassette for gravel duties and some lighter rims 25mm tyres with an 11-32 for road challenge rides / keeping up (sort of) with road only mates

pretty lucky as just drop straight in and out after a couple of minor adjusts of calipers first couple of times, obviously hit a lucky sweet spot

– use a chain checker pretty often as the gravel dust seems to wear chains quick – possibly why don’t get skipping
(I know what will happen tomorrow now 🙂 )

You can get disc spacers and cassette spacers.
Make sure everything is aligned, a little faffing on initial set up (maybe 20 minutes to get everything done) and then the wheels swap in less than a minute, and don’t need any adjustments.

Timidwheeler, You could always slip a motor in, quick flick of the switch That’ll bring the back end in?
Problem you would have then with a slickish tyre on the back you wouldnt have the traction on the climbs,
I’ve been looking at wheels, Some fairly decent ones about on eBay, Open Pro’s on Ultegra Hubs. i thought about two cassettes, then i thought about X1 By, then i thought about just buying a road bike. Then i realised i nearly got had by the advertising moguls and had a coffee and some cake. Now i’m trying to convince myself i want to go ride in this wind.

I know once i’m out there i wont want to come back in but the wind is relentless.

Anyway, I’ve got CXP23’s on mine and unfortunately they are bomb proof, if they weren’t i’d have swapped them by now.

you wouldnt have the traction on the climbs

I can think of an obvious solution..