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Would I notice much difference from my fully rigid 29er (Charge Cooker with on-one carbon fork)?
Not a great deal. The key difference is the tyre size and the grip and comfort between a ~30c and a ~60c tyre.
I managed to squeeze 50c tyres into my cross bike and guess what, if felt more like a rigid MTB with drops and lost the appeal of the faster CX bike.
What makes CX bikes faster off road is the riding position and ability to race along in the drops. Even though my MTB is very XC with a large saddle to bar drop I am still not in as much of a tuck as on a CX bike. They come a bit unstuck over sand, gravel, roots, mud when compared with an MTB so if you ride over that sort of stuff a lot then the Charge may be better.
I ultimately moved back to an MTB because it is just more fun to ride (manuals, jumps, flats bars rather than drops, bigger tyres so don't have to avoid anything)
I've been looking longingly at a Canyon Inflite AL. At the price they are, I may even be able to afford one next year under the pretext of affixing a trailer to it!
curiousyellow - MemberI've been looking longingly at a Canyon Inflite AL. At the price they are, I may even be able to afford one next year under the pretext of affixing a trailer to it!
A road riding mate bought one. His very first off road ride *ever* and first ride on that bike was the SDW over 2 days. They both survived, it's a very capable machine.
[quote=theotherjonv ] (is there such a thing as fun CX racing )
It seems to be the one form of racing where being fitter makes it easier rather than just making you faster IME. I'm not sure whether that quite makes it fun when you're really fit, but it is at least a bit less unpleasant 😀
Any time I thought "My rigid XC bike isn't shit enough for this job" I got the cross bike out. Great fun but I don't think I was doing it right tbh.
Encourage me to do this section of off road path on my commute into Central London, which is a minor detour
(although you'd still be able to manage it on a road bike in fairness)
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kind of confirms that i want a rigid 29r
singlespeed
whats the best value otp atm?
*makes a note of all mentioned above*
^^ yes. Having ridden around a fair bit on my pinnacle I can't help but feel that for those that just want a fun bike a rigid 29er would be better. Something like the Kinesis FF29 with rigid forks, arch wheels and skinny ish lightly treaded tyres would, I suspect, be as fast for most things whilst being more fun for offroad shenanigans. I'm tempted to try some flat bars Transition styleeee on mine since I have the bits in the shed.
If using it for big road loops or commuting as well where the drops are more useful then it may be different.
I can't help but feel that for those that just want a fun bike a rigid 29er would be better
the only reason I wanted to go to drops was to get tucked down out of headwinds
which on my MTB with semi slicks sometimes meant a ride from home to somewhere more interesting involved more effort than miles due to being blasted backwards
It also helps you ride cobbles when you're back on the road bike, it feels very familiar…
Mine was advertised as a gravel bike (Giant Revolt).
Brilliant bike, got it instead of a road bike, local lanes have a few farm track, bridleway and forest road options.
Probably ridden it more than my MTB the last year or so.
On mine,
Plenty of this,
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Rinse and repeat weekly 🙂
I've done 6000+ miles on my current CX bike, the previous one (Orbea) was a bit more racy with canti brakes and to be honest was quite unpleasant to ride offroad (Quantocks).
The current one (Whyte Saxon Cross) is a bit more relaxed and handles the Quantocks well (although I still haven't taken it down the Chimney).
Having a cross bike gives me so many more options for my commute across the Quantocks.
Pretty much what BadlyWiredDog says.
Use mine for commuting on and/or off road, general riding when I fancy mixing terrain a bit and most of my riding throughout the winter. I have 30mm semi slicks on it - seems to cover all/most bases.
Nothing too technical offroad round me and I've got a b*ggered foot/ankle and can't land jumps anymore anyway - so CX ticks the boxes. Road bike for fast road rides though.
Did a 70k ride today (50:50 road and off road) and it was fantastic.