[Closed] Anyone ride Cyclocross?

Cyclo-cross is recommended.

The bikes (with fatter tyres) give you a few more options for training rides, incorporating some off-road sections, but still quick on the road.

Racing is also good fun. It is short and intense, but this is ideal if you are not a big miles rider (like myself).

The CAADX is an excellent CX bike, but also look at the options from Ridley (X-Bow) and Planet-X (XLS).

Sean

I have done a similar thing to you- although I've swapped from riding a road bike to having a CX bike to commute on. My commute this morning involved a pretty wild bit of singletrack for a couple of miles, a canal towpath, a small amount of road then a farm track blast for the last few miles. It was brilliant fun.

Around that budget the Cannondale is good, it's also worth a look at the Pinnacle Arkose and Norco Threshold. Had I not found a blinding deal on the bike I got I would have gone for one of those two. The Norco appeared to be more of a "mountain bikers" cross bike, the Pinnacle more road orientated.

CX bikes are way less fun than roadbikes, nevermind mountainbikes. Basically unless you're racing CX (1hr of riding rolling grassy/muddy un technical fields ) CX bikes are just a massive compromise.
Just buy faster tyres for your mountainbike if you want to actually have fun or buy a roadbike if you want to get fit and make your commute faster.

I also find that mine has made me excellent at ignoring trolls.

If you're not bothered about cyclocross racing you might want to take a look at the 'adventure' bikes like the Genesis CdF, Norco Search etc. They're usually a fair bit heavier but offer more flexibility in mounting guards/racks and so on.

Cross bikes are fun mainly off road though, but since you dont want to do big miles and still cope with toe paths it should be fine for your intended usage. You can put a longer stem on and bigger rings to cope with a longer ride if need be, id defo look second hand to.

Ha ha.. nothing screams "FUN!" like a heavy weak bike with mudguards and luggage 😆

I also find that mine has made me [s]excellent at ignoring trolls[/s] [b]extremely territorial and easily offended[/b].

mtbel - Member
CX bikes are way less fun than roadbikes, nevermind mountainbikes. Basically unless you're racing CX (1hr of riding rolling grassy/muddy un technical fields ) CX bikes are just a massive compromise.
Just buy faster tyres for your mountainbike if you want to actually have fun or buy a roadbike if you want to get fit and make your commute faster.

Or alternatively, CX bikes are brilliant fun as they make trails that are a bit dull on an mtb far more interesting and fun. given that in the UK we're blessed with loads of bridleways that meet that criteria, CX bikes are very well suited to the UK. Then you can also link together trails via road on which CX bikes zip along compared to an mtb while not being much slower than a road bike (1-2mph IME). Not to mention that they deal with mtb trails ridiculously well considering the skinny tyres, etc. I love riding mine and it's just a different enjoyment from mtbing and road riding, all of which I love.

Unless of course you need to have a big bike with lots of suspension, etc to flatter you and make you feel that you're more hardcore than you actually are by flattening out more challenging, ego massaging terrain in which case it won't be for you 😉

mtbel - Member
CX bikes are way less fun than roadbikes, nevermind mountainbikes. Basically unless you're racing CX (1hr of riding rolling grassy/muddy un technical fields ) CX bikes are just a massive compromise.
Just buy faster tyres for your mountainbike if you want to actually have fun or buy a roadbike if you want to get fit and make your commute faster.

Who says cross is fun? Suffering, that's what it's about!

Seriously, a road bike is only good for road, nothing else, (stating the obvious.) If I'm riding my cross bike, I'll divert off boring roads onto bridleways, gravel cyclepaths, maybe even mtb tracks. It's a very different type of route to a road ride, and you see different places. Obviously it's not as much fun on proper MTB tracks, but that's not the normal place to ride a cross bike.

Of course you can do this on a mtb with narrower tyres, but most cross bike are much better suited to longer combined terrain routes than most MTBs.

Great fun bikes, bit of a swiss army knife, but then again I'm probably confused as I go from road/cross/mtb and fat all in a space of a few days, the cross bike is so different it certainly teaches smoothness offroad and a better line choice, rather than something that you can just bounce your way through. Don't discount racing, it's very addictive, you don't need to be anywhere near the front to be racing, as there is always someone of similar ability to dice with.

sorry. You think bridleways suddenly become fun and interesting just because you ride them on a 35mm tyre on drops?

fair enough.. we all have different fun thresholds

Ah, as I thought, you're a ego-massage-chariot rider 😉

Cross bikes are great. Commuted on mine throughout winter and enables me to mix between offroad, towpath and road routes as the mood takes me. Makes a potentially dull repetitive commute thoroughly enjoyable.

Also done a couple of 50 milers on it (on road) and its more than capable. When on road rides if you spot a bridleway you've not been on before you can always make a quick detour.

get the CAAD. far easier to sell on than the Merida will be if you find it a bit dull.

.

mtbel - Member

CX bikes are way less fun than roadbikes, nevermind mountainbikes. Basically unless you're racing CX (1hr of riding rolling grassy/muddy un technical fields ) CX bikes are just a massive compromise.
Just buy faster tyres for your mountainbike if you want to actually have fun or buy a roadbike if you want to get fit and make your commute faster.

It was particularly welcome in the very muddy months.

(oh and I have no intention of riding across muddy untechnical fields either in a race or otherwise)

You think bridleways suddenly become fun and interesting just because you ride them on a 35mm tyre on drops?

Yes? 😕

DrP

DrP - Member

You think bridleways suddenly become fun and interesting just because you ride them on a 35mm tyre on drops?

Yes?

DrP

I suspect that it may only be classified as fun if you push your bike up a hill for 10 minutes, have a 10 minute break and put your pads on ready for the 30 second long [s]gently down-sloping dog-walking path[/s] 'session'. 😉

TAke the downs link for example.... paint-dryingly boring on a 'normal MTB'... but attack it at 20mph on a drop bar skinny tyred beastie and it becomes it's own challenge!

Anyway...Lets leave it at that shall we...

DrP

What's the downs link? a bridleway? got any pics of this "beastie challenge"?
I honestly can't tell if you're seriously suggesting 20mph is fast.

Yes. I do agree it probably is best left at that. 😉

i'd say it's their jack of all trades, master of none nature that makes them great.

they are slower than a road bike but they make it easy to vary your routes in your local area by adding in tow paths/ fire roads etc.

They are great fun off road and as stated above they make stuff that is dull on an mtb into far more of an adrenalin rush since they have such a head down position, questionable grip and no suspension - and after all it's that rush that comes at the edge of control that people who love descending are after isnt it, from trail bikes through to downhill rigs?

Ordered my CAADX 🙂

I love my CAADX.

I used to ride a lot of cyclocross and used my bike loads for commuting. It makes bombing along the canal tow path possible, but I never felt it was more 'fun' than a proper mountain bike. My xc race bike is not much slower,yet you can jump, manual and just mess around like a child on it.

But a cross bike does give quite a different experience to mountain biking so they're good to have. They're also far better in the mud, which is really what they're for.

Basically unless you're racing CX (1hr of riding rolling grassy/muddy un technical fields )

someone has never raced CX...

I commute to work, 8.5 miles each way on my Genesis DayOne Disc, singlespeed cross bike and i love it, allows me to play on the way home if i choose to, awesome fun and makes my commute so much more fun

Those of you who have CAADX's, how do you think they would cope with a little middle weight UK touring. ie 1/2 filled panniers + bar bag + full guards, that sort of thing.

I recently joined the cyclocross bandwagon and got myself a orange rx9 2014 on cycle to work. Getting used to the difference from mtb over the last month, done a 50 mile ride - on and off road and its great. Use it daily for commuting to work. Got full length mud guards, cane creek cross top levers and now a pannier rack is going to be added

UrbanHiker - Member

Those of you who have CAADX's, how do you think they would cope with a little middle weight UK touring. ie 1/2 filled panniers + bar bag + full guards, that sort of thing.

I'd imagine it would be fine. I've not done that on the CAADX, but can't imagine it would be worse than the old steel MTB I toured around Brittany on.

warton - Member

Basically unless you're racing CX (1hr of riding rolling grassy/muddy un technical fields )

someone has never raced CX...

Basically unless you're racing CX (1hr of riding rolling grassy/muddy un technical fields )

Sums up central league CX perfectly. I found my races to be a poor relation of Gorrick XC racing to be honest 😉

CAADX is a nice bike. It will ride well and suit your purposes. If riding the bridleways doesn't suit, you can always add slick tyres and a tighter 11-23 rear cassette and ride it on the road just fine.

someone has never raced CX...

Ordered my CAADX

warton - Member

someone has never raced CX...

I'm with DrP on this one.

Take a cx bike onto an uninteresting bridleway then put the hammer down (you will need to be REALLY fit to do this well unfortunately). Feel the bike move around a little underneath you all the time as the tyres slither slightly under your awesome torque! Guide it round 'easy' corners in the knowledge that 32mm of rubber is not really enough, then use all your mtb skills to deal with every obstruction that appears in your path at frightening speed.

20mph is frickin fast off-road. To be able to hold that kind of speed you do need to be fit as anything, but my god even a few minutes of it on even basic trails is awesome.

You crazy bridleway Radsters 8)

Got to get your thrills wherever you can find them.

love my cx stylee / drop bar hybrid / adventure gravel racer - i went back to road riding after only riding mtb for years mainly because a mate suggested doing some long distance routes and french cols and needed to get some miles in, soon got reminded why i'd stopped riding road - made up a cx because wanted to link road sections with bridleways and bits of single track and wanted drops to get down in the persistent off the peak headwind and lose the inefficiency of a mountain bike on the road - its great fun - i sold my road bike but still ride my mtb

have you checked the rules on taking your bike on the train?

Yeh, i spoke to the ticket office and figured it out. My next task is to get some pedals i hated SPDs when i had them on my mtb and still prefer not to have them ideally, is there any pedals which offer decent grip, will hold the shoe in position without commiting to SPDs?

I have had two Cx's in the last year but have went back to a big wheeled hardtail. They are great fun and do open up a lot more areas to ride as you can do the big road miles slightly slower then jump into the woods for a blast . They are good at climbing but when It gets rough horrendous for descending . I did a few Cx races which were good fun but hard work .
I sold mine as I only have room for 3 bikes and having a road bike and a cx bike were too similiar so I now have a Full suss , 29 er and a decent road bike . I figure If I want to do cx races at my level It won't make much difference doing them on a 29 Hardtail. One thing I do agree with mtbel about is that you will shift a Cannondale much easier than a Merida should you choose to sell on. Have fun and enjoy your new bike.

CX bikes are awesome for all the reasons others have mentioned, amazingly some of us have more than one bike and ride them on different terrain. My £4K 160mm ego chariot is all about quality over quantity, it goes all over the UK and the world. Having had to choose where I live based on availability of work and affordability of housing the closest "decent" trails are a 30 min drive away. I can get out onto lanes and bridleways right from my door, and yes a skinny tyred drop bar bike does make bridleways interesting, if it doesnt, youre not riding it fast enough.

Which brings me to the mental image I have of some trolls here

Tripster ATR - there maybe even a [url= http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/tripster-atr-finally-built-up-lush ]thread[/url] on here about how awesome they are ....... 😀