Anybody else new to CX?

Had a spin today on canal paths, roads and gravel/muddy paths.

Pain in the backside with my mtbs and scary with my road bike but CX fits perfectly (bit of a slug uphill but probably me after an injury/rest period).

I’ve only got a Boredman CX Team 1×11, but paid £300 less the asking price. Feels slower than the road bike but so versatile.

versatile is key. bigger volume tyres too.
Unlikely to get any PBs, but the ability to pick a route, dive off down a track, head the long way round over lumpy roads and all with a smile on your face. works for me. Peregrine here – more all road / general purpose bike, have hacked it round some trails as well and coped admirably.

Great isn’t it!

I found I could ride on grass verges to allow pedestrians on shared cycle paths to stay unbothered without me worrying about crashing my road bike.

Think I might as well sell my mtb and spare road bike.

Hello.. 2010 called. It wants it’s thread back.

(sorry! Couldn’t resist!)

They are ace, aren’t they… 🙂

Lol ^^^

I remember reading about CX bikes years ago but didn’t (ingnoramous) take notice stupidly.

What no pics? Think you are all just a bunch of fan boys and girls and just dreamt you had a CX bike 😉

Replaced the stock saddle with an old BG I had spare.

will get something new soon.

I’ve been commuting on a Boardman CX Pro for the last 3 years or so, and the brake discs (once the awful Avid cable discs had been replaced with TRP HYRDs), rack and muguard mounts & fatter tyres make it superb for that.

I can’t imagine ever wanting to use it anywhere significantly off road though, as my MTBs are just too much fun! Even on something deliberately planned to be XC, I’d rather an unexpected rooty descent or something comes as a pleasant highlight of the day rather than potentially get off and walk! 🙂

Unlikely to get any PBs

I found the opposite. I still have some Strave KOMs that were on a cross bike that I can’t match on my MTB.
Being able to ride the drops, head down gains an mph over MTB position and that counts over a 3 mile segment.

Had a spin today on canal paths, roads and gravel/muddy paths.
Pain in the backside with my mtbs

why?

My cx bike (admittedly a croix de fer so more road orientated) is brilliant for my mixed terrain commute (single track, canal path and crappy b Road).

However, off road it’s a terrible tool for the job – as opposed to a mtb. However, it’s fun picking the right lines, makes you work hard on “easy” trails and is kind of fun.

On my 12 mile commute, the cx is not much faster though than my 29er with big apples. I lose a bit of speed on the paths and roads but gain massively on the rooty singletrack where having the flat bars and high volume tyres allows you to attack things with more vigour.

Thought I would ride the cx off road more but once the novelty wore off, I realised that the 29er was just better.

+ one for what doncorleoni said, put 28mm back on my london road its not an mtb and a 29er with slicks does it so much better imho.

On smoother singletrack mine is ridiculously quick. Can get to be hard work on rocky stuff but as a hardtail rider I’m used to picking lines more than I really have to.
Much quicker round my local loop as there is a lot of fireroad climbing.

I am a definite convert, but I don’t think it’s “proper” CX that’s gaining popularity here is it, more
“offroad lite/Bridleslaying/countryside bimbling” perhaps, just because the bikes strike a different balance between offroad capabilities and on road efficiency when compared to Road bikes or MTBS.
They don’t excel in either area, but do allow you to enjoy a ride that would be fraught on a Road bike and a bit dull on an MTB…

makes you work hard on “easy” trails and is kind of fun.

This is part of the appeal, there’s nowhere it can’t go, but it’s much easier to find something challenging that wouldn’t be on the MTB.

It’s nice to finish a ride and note that you’ve done the sort of mileage you would on a road ride, but still been able to go offroad, away from everything, explore and feel like you aren’t compelled to stick only to tarmac…

rOcKeTdOg – Member
Had a spin today on canal paths, roads and gravel/muddy paths.
Pain in the backside with my mtbs
why?

I live too far from any proper trail centre or forest without driving.
There are local road and smooth single track nearby which is ideal for CX – 5 minute ride on road.
I’ve beaten my times vs. my mtbs probably due to straight line speed.

Would use my mtbs at trail centres though.

Putting on my XTR spd’s as soon as I’ve worked the gears and handling.

Been shredding my local trails on CX bikes since 2001 and I tend to use my CX bikes more in summer – they literally fly on the hardpack. What are mild MTB trails technically are a lot more of a challenge on 35-40mm tyres and gives you the chance to links sections of bridleway and roads to create really interesting routes.

I was – unintentionally – an early convert to the gravel niche as I got an Arkrose to commute along the tow paths to work when they first came out.

Now used for exploring the huge network of towpaths, cycle paths and easy bridleways we have round here.

A mate has sold his MTB and road bikes and got a CX with two sets of wheels for road and off road. He is too stupid to see the joy of N+1.

Like anything horses for courses I think they are great did a nice little loop on my one in the Cotswolds yesterday came down a gnarly stony trail which is very rocky so took it easy with the cross bike same trail today with 29ER+ triple the speed but hay ho they are great on certain trails.

The nearest, fairly tame, offroad riding spot is about a 10 mile round trip on cycle paths/canal paths. The CX bike is a perfect compromise; it makes the trails more challenging and doesn’t put loads of pointless wear on the MTB.

OP you didn’t say why the mtb was a pain. I appreciate the cx is better but thats not what @Frankenstein asked

I’ve just got back from a road riding weekend in the Lakes with some friends, I used my CX bike with 35mm semi-slicks, they were all on road bikes.

The only time the CX was at a disadvantage was on fast open descents where they had the skinny tyres and higher gears. On everything else (wet roads, the really narrow, gravel/pothole strewn roads, steep/technical terrain which was most of what we were riding), the advantage was straight back with the CX.

Disc brakes, wider tyres, more stable. Perfect bike for the job. Oh and lower gears, they may have helped on one or two of the climbs… 😉

Converted my first cx to do anything, 28mm gatorskins, a rack and some ortlieb panniers I did 64 miles today on my norco with some horrible hills and dodgy potholes

Just ordered a full on cx to do some races on…

What CX Bikes are people using for road riding? crazy-legs?

Such a broad spectrum of what counts as a CX bike!

Watching this thread for some inspiration!

Ive got the same boardman as the op and use it for roads gravel commuting and just putting road miles. Not used it on any club runs or owt to compare it directly to the road bike tho.

I did a 30 mile loop on my arkose yesterday. The first half was all road and the second half, all off road. Great versatility.

As has been said, for rides that mix bridle way, road and track they’re great. The ability to hold off a pack of roadies and then turn off onto nearest track without loss of speed can be a giggle. I can’t believe I used to ride my Tricross round Stanmer whereas now I mince around on 3 inch tyres. If you don’t know any better cross bikes are very, very capable.

Cyclocross bikes surely are now in a design cul de sac.

Venturing off road and on road for most non roadies, there is no need to have big front road rings. You cant push them. If you take the outer chainring down to say a 46 you can widen the chainsays to fit a wider, even more comfortable 2-2.25 tyre, with some benefits in rolling resistance, though greater weight.

Thus a real gravel bike, would have ability to run fatter tyres than the max 40mm or so on CX bikes, given complimentary gearing. The on one bish bash bosh is a case in point. Had they made that a real gravel bike as advertised and used a smaller chainset/ bigger tyre, it would have been a cut price cut throat and truely usefull this side of the Atlantic.

Why stick with 130 on the rear, when things are going boost for greater wheel stiffness. Its a pro roadie restriction enforced by massive chainrings, narrow tyres and chainline.

I can understand what CX is for roadies in the winter, using last years road bike, and the narrow tyre can cut down through a muddy winter field, but as a design solution for normal folk for mixed terrain, it is not a logical specification. Obviously it is still a bike and usefull. Something Fargo like is closer in spec to what is less restricted and more adaptable.

Fundamentall you have to be pushing that 50/53 -11 gear frequently to make the restriction in tyre width that you have with a cx bike pay otherwise its pointless restricting yourself.

jambalaya – Member
OP you didn’t say why the mtb was a pain. I appreciate the cx is better but thats not what @Frankenstein asked
POSTED 5 HOURS AGO #

I found mtbs fast and great handling in tough terrain but a pain to cycle anywhere else e.g. Tarmac, with tyres and fork maintenance too.

For me the CX allows me to ride tarmac and single track pretty quick, great for training when you work flat out and don’t have 3/4 hours for a long ride.

Still need to sort my saddle height and would like a lighter shorter stem, lighter bars and seat post. My wheels are tough for training but heavy.

A road bike that allows you to mix it up with off road shenanigans.

For me I am considering something like that to replace my road bike as there are plenty of gravel roads here along with bad sealed roads, however it’s not something I’d actually take on the trails got 2 bikes that are much much better suited to that. I think if my only mountain biking locally was something that was better on a drop barred skinny wheeled bike I’d have to move 😉

Well I’m tempted to move for a job change that has less hours where I can drive an hour to the trails in Wales.

Some good canal and gravel roads where I am. Found an ideal CX trail in a small forest, not technical but fast.

It’s not cyclocross you’re doing, it’s just cycling, of the sort that I used to do as a kid on my mountain bike in the days when mountain bikes were fully rigid and had 1.75″ tyres that you pumped up to 40 PSI. It’s probably pretty much the same sort of cycling that my dad did as a kid on his Raleigh 3 Speed. It’s what loads of families in the Netherlands and Denmark and Germany still do on their bikes at the weekends. A bit of road, some paths, a few forest tracks, some gravel fire roads.

One of the problems cycling has had for a long time in Britain is that it’s always been viewed as a hobby, for special interest groups, and we’ve been convinced as a nation to buy loads of specialist bikes with fat draggy tyres and suspension that’s a pain on the road, or skinny racing tyres that are useless off it, when 90% of people would have been better off on some sort of “hybrid” (or what we probably once thought of as just a regular bicycle). I’m hopeful that the “cyclocross” and “gravel” phase is the last throw of this obsession with sport, sure the names are still stolen from racing, but at least the bikes are getting a bit more sensible. Hopefully once these are going out of fashion we might see bike shops that look like the ones in Northern Europe, with bikes properly designed for riding to work, or around town, or on some paths at the weekend.

What do they do that a mid/ late ’90’s mountain bike (like a Kona Explosif, for example) with narrow-ish tyres wouldn’t do just as well or better? Disc brakes excepted, of course.
Not trolling, just curious, never having thrown a leg over one.

no_eyed_deer – Member
Hello.. 20102006 called. It wants it’s thread back.

(sorry! Couldn’t resist!)
🙂

[url=https://flic.kr/p/nb5iV]2006_0910talgarth_cx0008[/url] by multispeedstu, on Flickr

What CX Bikes are people using for road riding? crazy-legs?

Specialized Crux. Carbon Pro something or other, 2014 frame.
It’s actually set up specifically for the Three Peaks (34/48 chainset, 12-36 cassette, Hope hydro discs running off a V-Twin so I can use bar-top levers as well). 35mm semi-slick tyres.

The bonus is that it’s a brilliant all-rounder, I use it all the time in the Peak District for winter road-riding, mixed use road/off-road rides…

It’s not cyclocross you’re doing, it’s just cycling…

+1. Don’t overthink it, CX bikes are superbly capable even if the name doesn’t quite live up to the original incarnation of “CX” as a very niche sport.

+1 again for ‘just cycling’. I fully agree with the joyful versatility of a mixed-terrain bike, but it’s too easy to get a bit hung up on labels. I’ve had an Arkose for quite a while and I used it off road a bit, but I realised I enjoy off-roading on an mtb a lot more. For mixed terrain rides i’m building myself a light, rigid, drop-barred (mtb drop not full drop) 29er with race/semi-slick tyres (based on a Scandal V2 frame). It’ll weigh the same as the Arkose but be more capable off road, and give a away little on the road. Basically it’ll be a cheaper version of the Salsa Cutthoat (in my mind anyway!), which I think with the right tyres is a better compromise for me, than a ‘CX’ style 35-40mm tyre bike.

the great thing with the new ‘gravel’ bikes is that the cyclocross bikes have gone back to being proper CX racing bikes

a good number of manufacturers previously made CX bikes that were too compromised in geometry and equipment to be good for CX racing, or good for general riding

the CX racers can get great specific bikes, and non-racers can get great gravel bikes

I’ve put (Marathon+) commuter 32s on my Arkose so it’s not quite as intended, but it’s a great commuter for mostly road plus the odd track or byway. In it’s current state anything that is more gnarly gets a 29er thrown at it, but it’s nice knowing that it’s more capable than a road bike so isn’t as restrictive when going for a ride

We are completely overanalysing though. Most people have a bicycle, which they use to cycle on. Surface isn’t something that factors into their minds, they’re just going for a ride. The hybrid from a few years ago is perfect for this, burly enough for most things, not rapid but quick enough to get around on

I love mine (Orange CX9), great for heading out on the lanes for a few hours, plus I manage to stay quite clean so no faff when I get home.
If i head out on the MTB i normally spend 30 minutes cleaning the mud from me and the MTB.

They would broadly be well suited to the New Forest where I ride. I’ve mulled over that OO Bish Bash Bosh and the Pickenflick. There are alot of linking roads, gravel forest roads and XC type singletrack and plains.

I rode my 90’s Ti frame and Ti rigid fork steed with 1.6 Trailblasters I think they were at 40 psi which must be about the same width as these gravel tyres/ CX bikes for a good 20 years. It was certianly very fast and capable, and in some ways the vibration coming up through, makes it ‘feel’ fast too, independent of actually the speed. Certainly direct.

Moving on to an all carbon frame/ fork and set up from an all titanium one, there is certainly less harshness, in part due to the material/ frame design, but also the wider tyres at 2.25 now and lower pressures. For me this makes a better ‘all day’ ride even on gravel, especially as I’m older too, and a lighter throw over a gate. Looking at the gear I’m pushing it appears faster too, with less chatter feedback, than you get with a narrow tyre at high pressure.

With discs, vibration absorbing carbon frame/ forks/ posts/bars, tubeless tyres/ rims and taller headtubes these are likely to be better riding and more comfortable than the 90’s bikes we had back then I’m sure.

Just fundamentally for weekend warriors, the gearing needs of only upto 46/11 and discs should allow for a CX bike frame design to permit a wider tyre/ chainstay to be fitted, so you are not tyre limited. The Bish Bash Bosh was near perfect with a tall head tube and would have been a Cut Throat killer had they ‘got it’, but they seem too blinkered with roadiness at Planet X to see the wider market: it’s seemingly needlessly tyre limited to only a CX tyre narrower width/ lower comfort.

Is it some kind of CX race bike qualification that says it has to be arranged to be tyre limited so?

Is the CX scene a big market? I can’t imagine it can be compared to the bikepacking/ Fargo/ Cut Throat product. If they’d just made that with wider chain and seat stays to take a 2.25 Race King/ Thunder Burt it would have slayed that American £4k Cut Throat.

esher shore – Member
the great thing with the new ‘gravel’ bikes is that the cyclocross bikes have gone back to being proper CX racing bikes
a good number of manufacturers previously made CX bikes that were too compromised in geometry and equipment to be good for CX racing, or good for general riding
the CX racers can get great specific bikes, and non-racers can get great gravel bikes
POSTED 2 HOURS AGO # REPORT-POST

This ^^^.

Noticed a lot of bike brands switching to 1×11 and less commuter friendly CX’s with a focus on racing CX again, unless you choose from their gravel range. Good!

[video]http://youtu.be/KRG4UeXkEb4[/video]

Sorry if you can’t read Francais.