The roads by me are dirty, muddy pot-holey and rough and my road bike wheels (second set in 18 months) are beyond repair now. I’ve discovered some nice little gravely off road routes locally near me too which would be great for a summer pootle on a CX bike, but I don’t really want to buy a CX bike but thought about buying a set of CX wheels/tyres and sticking them on my road bike.

Good idea/bad idea? I’m aware mud clearance won’t be adequate but i’m not going to really be using it in muddy conditions and the brakes aren’t ideal for CX but I can live with that.

You probably need a CX bike.

To save the rims, you’ll need air volume as the strength of the wheel isn’t always improved by fitting CX wheels depending on what you go for. If your road bike is truly a road bike, then 28c is probably the limit.

If the roads are dirty or muddy, you may want mudguards and/or disc brakes.

Additional issues are likely to be clearance for getting a CX tyre past road callipers and limits imposed by rear stays.

I’d recommend borrowing a set of wheels and offering them up or spending some quality time with a ruler.

FWIW the Alex 430’s on my weekday build X with 700×33 Raze’s have survived a year of the worst conditions Sheffield’s beautiful roads around Attercliffe/Brightside can throw at them as well as big chunks of the Dark Peak that look very much like real mountain bike territory… They’re heavy wheels but bulletproof and still true after 18 put the back wheel together properly for me (very loose spokes at a month old). I tend to run around 60F/80R for town and 40F/60R off road or thereabouts. Sometimes more or less. I’m seriously contemplating some XT 29er wheels as a second, lighter set. I’ve really surprised myself at how many times I’ve left the mountain bikes at home in favour of the X this last year. Shame they’ve dropped it. Disc brakes are a massive win for all weather cycling, with the additional bonus of not leaving you with a rubbing brake after bending a wheel should the worst happen.

Is C2W an option? Plenty of capable CX bikes under the magic grand…

Cross bikes seem to be pretty cheap used, if you’ve got space. “brakes aren’t ideal” is an understatement, even CX brakes aren’t ideal for CX, ymmv but I really wouldn’t want to go anywhere south of cantis as they’re already crap.

this was my pickle ended up taking a punt on a crossbike and never looked back
if its any use il be puting my tricross frameset up for sale soon 54cm i can include original brakes to aid changeover its just a little big for me

As above. You are un likely to get anything even resembling a cx tyre on your bikke.

Hmmm, looks like it’s going to have to be a very cheap/2nd hand CX bike then.