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A few months ago I bought a cyclocross bike with the intention of trying out a few local races, however I never actually got around to it and to be quite honest I don't think I'm likely to any time soon. I could do with getting some road miles in though so I put the cx bike up for sale or swap with the intention of getting a similar quality road bike, however I haven't had any interest at all (it's an '08 58cm Focus Cross Expert if anyone is interested...).
So I'm wondering whether it's worth converting the cx bike for road use? I guess I could swap out the tyres for decent 25 or 28mm slicks, the 12-27 cassette is probably okay but the chainrings are 48/34 which seems a bit on the small side. Don't suppose I'd need the bar top brake levers either....
What do you reckon....i sit worth the hassle or should I just keep looking for a buyer?
just stick some proper tyres on it.
rings are just below having a normal road compact chainset (50-36)
oh, and my crosser is my winter training bike,
and my nice bike stays away for better conditions (now its back out!) and racing.
Chris I use my Focus cx on the road more than off. Bought another set of wheels/cassette/road tyres to just chuck in and go! Make it easier and get some rims the same- ors omething about the same width, to save faffing with the cantis all the time.
Put a compact chainset on also, which seems to give a better spread of gears for road and off- tho probably not the best for cx racing or road racing( but assuming we are not doing much of either!)
Enjoy 🙂
If you want to sell best wait till later in the year/autumn?
Buy some road tyres and maybe a 12/25 cassette, the chainset will be fine.
Fair enough, better go looking for some road tyres then 🙂
I agree with everybody else. All you need are some road tyres. You don't even need to change anything with the gears, as 48-12 is plenty big enough (we all used to ride with a 52-13 top gear, which is exactly the same ratio, and that's still what's on my winter/hack/training bike), and nowt wrong with having a 34-27 at the bottom end to winch yourself up any really steep hills (don't see any point in swapping to a 12/27 which only makes a difference to the bottom 2 gears). If you ever think you might use it as a cross bike, and don't plan on doing any serious road racing, then much better off to keep it, as you really won't lose out significantly compared to a road specific bike.
As above, if you're just doing the road miles for the fun of it, the gearing and extra weight don't really matter. They'll actually get you fitter! Maybe swap the tyres if the current ones are knobbly but if they're just a bit wider than ideal, leave them on and ride it.
just leave the cx tyres on, pump them up nice and hard and go riding. You'll be able to chuck some cheeky bits of offroad into your road rides then and enjoy them more. Unless you're going chain ganging it with some cat 1's you're really not going to notice a huge amount of difference.
I used a Kona 07 Jake as my commuter, just changed the tires,road bike for under £25.
Wot sumuri said.
Cool - thanks folks, will give it a go.
My Jake the Snake is my main commuter, doing 120 miles a week its fine as a road bike, the brakes on the top are overkill, but does make track standing easier!
TBH, one of my biggest fears riding road bikes is that they'd snap under me (irrational fear i know!) My JTS quashes this fear ever since i started hopping over potholes on it.. just get out and ride!