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Does anyone have any videos of people doing/attempting extremely technical terrain on cyclocross bikes? I keep debating with a riding buddy whether a cyclocross bike would make a serviceable commuter that could also tackle my local xc trails. It's the xc trails part I'm having difficulty with.
search youtube for "cyclocross bunnyhop"
There was a vid I saw a while ago from the Kamloops Classic of a guy racing mtbs through a bmx course on a cx bike. smooth as you like over a set of doubles.
I've just come back from riding some local trails on my cross bike. It was super fast on some bits,pretty slow on the rough rocky descents,I even had to carry it as well !! But still great fun.
My first ever proper off-road ride was on a crosser. There was some pretty techy stuff (bear in mind it was in Norfolk, so maybe not that techy). Given that I was a complete novice the bike handled it with aplomb. I just rode the black route at Thetford today and most of it I would be happy to do on a cross bike too.
There was a thread on here a while back with some old timey photos of proto CX racers in France doing proper hardcore races - muddy hillsides galore.
Your CX bike will do nearly anything XC - I don't find it hugely fun going downhill on rocky descents, but it can easily be done (slowly in my case). If you get good you can boot it down regardless.
Next year's two Hit the North races will let you get all this extreme cyclocross malarky off your chest, sonny.
There's various pics that crop up on here of CX bikes riding steps, jumping out of bombholes etc.
As a general rule CX bikes will do almost anything that would be considered "normal XC" although rocky descents are usually slightly slower. I ride my CX in the Peak District regularly.
Classic comment yesterday while I was going down the Shooting Cabins descent, 3 riders coming the other way and one guy said to his mates "Was that...a ROAD bike?!
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Used to ride the same trails on my cx bike as my stumpy fsr, drops jumps the whole 9 yards. Great for getting your skill level up. The only down side I found was that cx bars tend to bend easily.
It's not the bike that counts, it's the rider.
Any bike, anywhere, any time is a good rule.
Xc trails will be fine on a Cx bike, though maybe you won't be quite as quick dependent on overall technicality.
I do nothing more than 3 ft to flat really on any bike no problem doing that on a cross bike though.
i did dalby red no problem on 32mm schwalbe cx pros . only problem i had in places was i was so used to discs the cantis werent as snappy but no real issues

