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I'm sitting here wondering why you bought a 'cross bike to be honest. I see that you want to do some 'cross racing and ride it on the road in the winter yet you don't seem at all comfortable with riding it with road bike bars and you are clearly unhappy with canti's.
Maybe a disc equipped flat bar road bike with slightly more than normal tyre clearance would have been a better bike for you?
Even a 'cross bike with mechanical discs, fit a longer stem and flat bars. You could have sold the STI's (assuming Tiagra level or better), bought flat bars, shifters and brake levers and probably still had a couple of quid profit.
cross bikes are for cross, mtbs are for anything more than a slippy field and some running.If you want to go fast and go offroad get fitter and ride a short travel hardtail... well thats what i reckon.
LS - MemberWho's trying to tell you what to do? I just find it interesting that a lot of people seem to be getting cx bikes, not necessarily with the intention of racing on them, and then go about trying to alter them to make them more like an mtb.
Sorry if I misinterpreted what you were trying to say. I guess what I'm saying is that the nice thing about cross bikes is that you can use them for all sorts of stuff, not just racing and it doesn't seem unreasonable to tweak them to function better for you chosen use. 🙂
.. ..but which you sure as hell don 't need
anything more than cantilevers for!
I take my cross bikes out for skills training on
my local trails now and again but I don' t then
come on here and moan that the brakes are
rubbish , or that the gears are too high, or that I
want to run flat bleedin' bars I mean, what 's
the point? If you' re going to try and turn it into
a pseudo- mtb then just ride your mtb.
well it does also get ridden on some mtb type stuff. that's what's so brilliant about them, you can do a ride on road, bridleways and some mtb stuff all on one bike. lots of areas are blessed with that mix so a cx is perfect for opening up your options. yeah, better brakes aren't essential but make the whole experience more enjoyable for me and evidently some others. I stick with cx gearing and drop bars as they work perfectly well.
Basically, its just being open minded enough to see beyond what people say a particular bike is for and making up your own. I love my cx as it's so versatile.
I've ridden cross bikes for the last 15 years, my first being a custom built frame by Isla and Andy. I've done cross racing, touring, road rides, road training, loads of off road rides, commuting and just general tooling around. My current bike is full carbon and im currently riding it out and about round the Surrey Hills riding out from west London and back but still doing all the old favourites in the Hills. It's obviously a compromise compared to a road bike, or a dual sus mtb, or a commuter but it crosses (see what I did there?) most of the boundaries.
They're such versatile bikes - had a blast recently round Friston on it in company with a bunch of mtb-ers - even the bomb holes were fine on 32mm tires.
Just ride what and how you want to, it's not a crime is it?
sounds like a hybrid is required but too embarassed to admit it.
A cross bike is a more capable road bike, not a faster mountainbike.
I'm not rally sure which replies are directed at me, but I haven't bought anything yet, i'm just asking questions. I've not raced cross before so I don't know what theyre like exactly, hence the questions about the bars. I really asked out of curiosity as I'll want drops for riding on the road anyway. I don't know whether people use drops on CX as they're all roadies or because they're better. It seems to depend on the course and either could be a viable option. I'm sure I can ride drops if others can.
I'm going to give some cantilevers a chance, when I buy some CX wheels and tyres I'll decide whether to fit a cable disc then. Let's be honest, discs are cool, so I probably should. What size rotors? 160mm?
I definitely don't want a hybrid!
Does anyone race CX on a road bike, or does that just not work at all? Again, just curious!
Apologies. I assumed you'd already purchased a 'cross bike and discoveresd that you didn't like it.
You can get away with a road frame for cross only if there's clearance around the frame and brakes for the tyres. There rarely is on a modern frame but an old tourer or something would cope so long as it's not too muddy.
Cross riders that I know don't tend to be primarily road or mtb-biased but do a fair bit of both. Personally, if I had to pin it down I'm a crosser first, mtb/road second, and a TTer third. Basically I'm just a cyclist. Cross stopped being a winter training session for road riders a long time ago and is now a full discipline in it's own right.
No I'm just a chap with a knackered road bike that's too big for him that's looking to kill two birds with one stone by getting a CX frame instead of a road one. Dont know anything about CX other than I want to do it over the winter, hence the questions! CX with two sets of wheels should be decent winter bike before getting a new road bike in the spring.
Ok, pulled the trigger on the Kinesis with their carbon fork, next question............... wheels?
Do I want CX specific or will any road wheel do? not looking to spend loads of cash, so was looking at cheaps on merlin like these:
Will I break them?
For clinchers I use Campagnolo Neutron Ultra - they've been good for 2 years.
Or alternatively get some nice sprint rims built up - Ambrosio Nemesis on Record are what I have
Campagnolo Zondas for my main race bike and Ultegra/Open Pros on my backup race bike. Both "bomb-proof" for a 140lb rider racing cross.
Thanks, are those CX wheels or just standard road wheels? That's what I really need to know.
I'm coming at this from a background of riding 1000s of miles on a set of bent wheels that were no better than those I've linked to when new, so I'm not really looking at anything flash or spending a lot of money. But I don't want to buy some wheels that will get trashed as soon as I take them off road.
Do I want wider rims? Probably not if it can be helped as I'll want to be able to swap a set of wheels with road tyres on without messing with the brakes.
Cheers
I have Fulcum 7's on my 'cross bike. I've hit some rocky stuff hard enough to pinch flat..well, instantly burst to be honest and the rims are untouched.
It's been used in the Peak District for stuff it's not designed for but that's because I don't currently own a mountain bike.
Standard road wheels are usually fine - they've certainly been ok with me and if I haven't killed them then I doubt you will 🙂
I have handbuilt wheels with Halo aerorage rims - deepish section (mud tends to stick a bit less), maybe a bit stronger but not too heavy or expensive. I'm running them tubeless which has been great as it's ended the curse of pinchflats and having to run at 85psi (I now run about 50 to 60psi). I've never actually dented or damaged a CX rim actually though on my road bike I have bent a few hitting pot holes.
Good stuff, how have you tublessed them? Are they tubeless rims or have you ghetto'd them?
I will get some new road wheels at some point and see how things go, I'm pretty light on wheels generally, so if you don't think I'll break them, I'm pretty sure I'll be fine.
I used a stans or joes (forget which) rim strip, joes sealant (60ml per wheel) and standard tyres (CX Smallblock 8s). Took a while to get them to seal consistently but now they great. I think the main problem was that the tyres had some sort of release agent in them which stopped the sealant sticking/clogging so I gave them a good clean with meths and re-assembled after which no problems. I certainly won't go back to tubes.
clubber, what kind of pressures do you run on your tubeless?
on my cx? I was running 85-90psi with Conti Speed King 35mm or Kenda SB8s as any less than that and I pinched on anything rocky. I am pretty heavy though.
I'm now running about 50-60psi and that's fine. While I was having the initial problems of getting them to hold air without slowly leaking I did actually ride them down to 25-30psi and while I definitely felt the rim bottom out a few times, they did actually work fine and the rims never dented.
Cos a cross bike with flat bars looks plop!! You should have known...
Sure, but I can live with looking plop in the short-term.
Anyway, I'm fully committed to the drop bars and the cantilever brakes now as I went for the bling carbon fork that doesn't have disc mounts because it looks better and is a lb lighter and matches the frame better. Going to run my dual-pivots until I get some CX specific wheels next month, unless I can find some things to ebay in the mean time.
Just get some cheap Shimano wheels and rag em. Or use what you've got.
I'm still wearing through old sets I have, but I'd go for Mavic Open Pro Ceramics or CDs on Ultegra. Classic rebuildable and cup & cone'tastic.
aP I have got used to running 40/45psi with tyres, even went sub 20psi in the snow and ice at the Vets Nationals.
Sorry, what I meant was, I'm going to get some cheap road wheels that I'll use specifically for cyclo cross.
However on my ride tonight I wondered whether if I only use CX tyres for racing I might as well just stick with what I've got and change the tyres over to begin with. Depends if I'm going to do some lanes riding with it over the winter nights, could be a good option as I can ride it from home.
I would to start with. The only thing is you do need your bike in top working order for the races, so you must give it a good going over after your last commute.
I save mine for the season, then wear off the parts training on it post season.