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I bought my first road bike last summer (Boardman mid range something or other), and enjoy spinning round the country lanes in the evening for a bit of mid week training.
Around where I live, though, there are a couple of old railway lines that would be really fun on a cyclocross bike, but a bit tedious on my mountain bike.
Is it possible to by a pair of cyclocross tyres and fit them to my existing road wheels? I guess my road rims are thinner than the normal CX widths but I'd rather not fork out on another set of wheels. It wouldn't be a permanent conversion, just for the odd blast on more rough lanes/tracks (maybe a little strava smashing too!)
Has anyone tried converting a road bike?
Your wheels won't be a problem. The (lack of) tyre clearance almost certainly will be though...
Yes, lack of clearance for tyres and with road brakes will be the issue, though there are some skinny CX tyres around.
Hadn't thought of that! Reckon there's about 5mm clearance between tyre and brake/frame, so should be able to fit some thinnish CX tyres.
Cheers
Thin CX tyres won't have any "give" in them so you'll take a bit of a smashing. Also remember that you'll need mud clearance.
Do you need CX tyres? Or is it fairly hard pack, where perhaps a tough road tyre would do the trick....say some Conti Gatorskins in a 28c width?
scotroutes - probably only for summer use, and it's a pretty dry track year round. Might have to look at a proper cx bike for next winter..
mtbtomo - it's hardpack gravel in some places, looser stuff in others. WIll have a look at the Gatorskins, they do look pretty hardwearing and would save the hassle of changing tyres too often.
You can ride anything on anything if you want to badly enough. It's not the bike you have to modify its your riding. If you can't do that then get the kit for the job.
My advice is leave the bike as it was designed and learn to adapt your riding for the surface you're on.
Would rather spend £50 to go a bit faster over and more puncture safe over mixed surfaces. But I see what you're saying.
How strange... just a few minutes ago I was wondering what would happen if I put my cheapo wire-rimmed CX tyres on my road bike then I logged on and saw this post.