Can I turn my road bike into a CX?

Would I be able to turn my road bike into a CX? Or can you recommend me a CX bike for £200 please 🙂

Most road bikes you will struggle for tyre clearance.

thats like asking if you can turn a ford mondeo into a land rover? just slap some narrow tyes on and away you go 😉

Yes of course, it may not be perfect but itll still only be tiny factor of the result.

I did a 95 miler on an old Allez last week much of it on bridleways and mud tracks, normal brakes and 28mm tyres. As usual the weakest link was my legs and lungs!

Suppose it depends on the course.

The frame/forks won’t break will they? I have a carrera tdf

You will carry it a lot cantis clog up never mind sidepulls when full of leaves and mud

if you want to know how tough road bikes are go and look for videos of Danny Macaskill (sp?) and others doing trials and tricks on them. Frame/fork breaking is a long way down the list of reasons it’s a bad idea.

I use my Speccy Allez off road but that’s on gravel,’off road light’.I have yet to use it on grass/mud although I can see it happening..

I think you can enter a lot of CX races on an MTB?

The frame/forks won’t break will they? I have a carrera tdf

Depends on how/where you ride it.

Tyre clearance is probably your biggest problem, frame and forks you will probably struggle to get them in.

I’ve got a Carrera TDF and use it off road loads. 32mm knobbly CX tyres don’t fit, they squeeze into calipers, but fork crown too low (even filed down) and chain stays too narrow. So no use if you want to race CX.
However, I just stick with 25mm road tyres and it works fine cruising on flat bridleways and towpaths, and easy summer trails. In fact made a big improvement in Strava times! Narrow slicks and tall gearing hopeless when it gets proper muddy and undulating.

You might get some 28c conti 4 seasons on there.. ive taken them down all sorts of bridle paths and tracks (not really muddy though as they are quite slick)

A road bike with 28c tyres is not a CX bike.

HTH.