Can a road bike be turned into a usable cross bike?

Say if I put knobbly tyres on it and maybe even a flat bar would it work ok or would the frame fold and the geometry be totally wrong?

see here

This is my bike if it makes any difference. A 09 Trek 1.2.

clearance will probably be too tight for cross tyres, even in the dry. it won't be any weaker than a cross bike though

Yeah think about tyre-to-brake clearance as well as tyre-to-frame/fork.

Deffo too tight for cross use. Shame though coz it wouldn't show the mud 😆

Ok so in theory if I swapped all the parts bar the forks and brakes over to a cross frame would they all work ok? Would the wheels be strong enough etc?

You might want to change to a compact chainset – cross chainsets are often more like 48/36.

Oh, hold on, you're running a triple. On a road bike.

How very dare you.

Yes.

Edit and if you want a cheap 52cm Cross frame with cantis but no forks I have one.

The triple was the only one they could get apparently it was the last 1.2 in my size in europe.

In my defence.

that frame won't fit cross tyres in. I have a trek 1000 from a couple of years ago and can just get 25mm tyres and a mudguard in. Brakes would probably struggle too. even if you could fit the tyres in, it would handle mighty scary too i should imagine.

road frames are steeper

the forks wont have canti mounts or be big enough to take 32mm tyres + lots of mud

the frame will have the same issues as the fork

you wont want a tripple, its just another thing to get clogged up with mud

its white

If you want a cross bike, sell the roadie and buy a s/h cross bike.