Cyclocross bike that will double as a road bike?

So…my road bike has just been stolen and looking to replace. Have always liked the idea of a cross bike but can’t justify that and a road bike. Will something like a dirty disco also work as well as a cheapish road bike? Will I notice the difference with slick tyres on? I do a fair bit of road riding and the odd tri so would want to feel comfortable using for that. Any ideas welcomes and offers of secondhand bikes!

Any cx bike will do it – as you say it’s the tyres that make the biggest difference, though the gears may be a bit compromised.

How much road riding do you do?

TBH I wouldn’t fancy doing much on my CX bike

Yea what he said ?

What cynic-al said. My road bike is a CX bike with slicks on.

I have been using my Kinesis Crosslight Pro6 on the road with the occasional trail since October. It’s brilliant, especially as the roads round the N Downs are practically covered in gravel and holes these days. I regularly do 50-60miles on the road on it. I run Racing Ralphs at 70psi to give good speed and feel on the road.

I’ve got 2 sets of wheels for my crosser, so it doubles nicely as a winter road bike. No problems,would recommend it.

I’ve seen a few guys racing in regional level crits and road races on CX bikes – slick tyres, maybe flip the stem down – and they cope fine.

Just be aware if you’re planning on doing any road racing that you can’t use disc brakes so obviously a CX bike with cantis. If you’re not going to do any road racing then get whatever!

I use my CX as a winter road bike, often don’t even bother changing the tyres, just pump them up hard.

People have said stuff about higher bottom bracket making it sluggish etc. that true? I do road ride a fair bit (more of an all day 100miler kind of guy than a 2 hour 50miler if that makes sense) but am mtb at heart…

Dirty Disco is good on the road, I just switch btwn two sets of Disc wheels one with CX Tyres and one with 24mm Vittoria Open Pave Evo’s
Bike probably gets ridden more with Road Tyres than CX these days.

I have a genesis vapour Size 56 (med)non disc version that i’m failing to try very hard to sell! It’s this model http://www.evanscycles.com/products/genesis/vapour-2009-road-bike-ec017144
Should really sell it before the wife finds out that i haven’t yet sold it (i replaced with an xc bike a couple of weeks back and is currently hidden in my garage 🙂 )
Works well on the road with slicks as well as offroad. I’d like £400 for it as it’s in decent condition.

high bb won’t slow you down at all.

Have been using my giant tax as a road bike for over a year now, even competing in club time trials, the top tube is a bit short and the handling can be bait twitchy, also the canti brakes can be great one day crap the next, but overall it’s a good bike, I did do a bit of cross riding on it but 3 punctures on one ride took the buzz out of that.

GEt one with short chainstays, they feel a bit livelier

So what are the main disadvantages of the cross bike? Because something like a dirty disco will be the same weight as my old colnago so could be the best bet. Any other nice light carbon cyclocross bikes around £1000?

Rose bikes

Boardman here, great for a winter road bike. thinking about a 2nd set of wheels with slicks on, but not essential.

EDIT: and if you see a an interesting bridleway, you can check it out!

I wouldn’t worry about a high BB, all the track bikes and fixed gear frames have them to avoid pedal strike and it’s not a problem.

I use my Jake the Snake on the road rather than plastic bike over the winter. I should get around to swapping out the 32c Borough tyres for the Gatorskin 28’s but it doesn’t slow it too much and it’s nice and comfy on the crap roads. Over a 25 miles hilly loop it is 10 mins slower than light road bike with 23c tyres

I would have thought any carbon CX bike will do running on slicks. I rode my Dolan CX bike on the National 24 hour TT champs this year and I wasn’t last.

I’m waiting for our C2W to finally get off the ground so I can have a CX commuter/bad weather road/audax bike.

Currently looking at Boardman, Pinnacle or Kaffenback, as I don’t know who the supplier will be as it’s a very big secret

Kinesis here, use it with slicks and it’s fine. Swap to cross tyres for off road fun too 🙂

Ask Rog Hammond about when he rode off the front of a group containing Tony Doyle. On his cross bike. In an E1/2 race.
It’ll be fine, just don’t have the stem pointing upward.

I used a Kinesis Crosslight on the road for a couple of winters, was absolutely fine, did a few thousand miles on it, didn’t even use slicks, it wasn’t that much slower than a road bike. In fact it was lighter and nicer to ride than my Allez.

Check it’s got bottle bosses too, a lot of more racey frames don’t have.

I use my Uncle John as my winter road bike, it is noticeably slower than a proper road bike, but does the job just fine. Gearing can be an issue but I’ve got slicks on spare wheels with different cassette & change to a bigger chainring if needed (44 to 48)

going a long way on a CX bike would be nigh on impossible.

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miles[/url] by Jon Wyatt[/url], on Flickr

Especially if it was fixed.

Most cx race frames now have bottle cage mounts so that won’t be a problem and the only significant difference will be that the handling will be slightly slower than a road bike (unless you buy a coticx or white when it’ll be very different). We went on a weeks’ road riding in Spain this march and took our cross bikes rather than road bikes and had no problems whatsoever except for the trek Madone riding snob who sneered a lot.
Oh, my early comment about Rog Hammond – it was Gibbsy he rode away from rather than Doyle.

Some other light options at about £1000
Something from Zepnat
Something from Paul Milnes
Ridley
Stevens
Some of the ex-display bikes at Planet-X from Guerciotti

If you’re a 56cm height there was a very nice and cheap (£499) Kinesis Crosslight second hand in Leisure Lakes Bury. I tried to get it to fit, but couldn’t manage it.

My CAADX was just under a grand. Cyclescheme is going through so will report back on its roadbike-ness in a few weeks…

I ran my CX bike as a summer road bike this year, despite not having water bottle cage mounts.

I ran a zero degree 110mm stem compared to a +6 degree 90mm stem for cross. I also run the bars slightly angled up and with the hoods higher for cross.

Other changes include a front mech and a 53 tooth big ring. Works for me, works for a lot of CX pro’s like Tim Johnsson.

I want a kona Rove CX :D… As soon as my tiral with work is done it is the second thing (or the frist depending on the availabilty of the first thing) I will buy 😀

Alex what’s your dimensions? That cross light could be good. I’ve been eying the 1k disc on rosebikes, looks great for the cash.

I had a look at the Rose, trouble is, cross bike sizing seems so blimmin random between manufacturers, so I had to get one i could try out.

Ive just bought one of these from Merlin.

At 8.4kg, its bearley heavier than its dedicated road equivenlent the trentino, and as far as I can tell, very little difference in geo either. I went for a fitting and test ride and I was sold on the spot. I cant see why with a set of road tires it wouldnt be every bit as good as a road bike, short of running out of gears at 30mph. If I get fit enough for that to be a problem, I fancy running a compact chainset that would easily resolve it.

It conforms to Rule #8[/url] too. Although I plan to break many others 😆

Cor that’s nice for £850. Luckily I’m nowhere near Merlin or I’d be having second thoughts!

Grimy, that’s a great looking bike. How does it ride, have you ridden other CX bikes to compare it against?

It road around the buisness park very nicely 😆 I’m afraid i’m just not qualified to give a good comparison to other cx bikes as this is the first I’ve owned.

There is a review Here! but I wont agree with the coments about the brakes. They perform very well, and as far as I can make out are widley used by pro racers with far more need than I.

Any thoughts on the Whyte CX bikes?

My CX bike isn’t really a CX bike at all, it’s a cross-purpose bike (Spesh Tricross disc) so it makes a perfect winter bike with mudguards, a great tourer with a rack and is very comfortable – the position is more like a hybrid or commuter than any kind of racer. I rode it 70 miles to Windermere and although it was slower I arrived feeling much fresher than when I did the same ride on my Roubaix, which is also supposed to be a comfortable bike. It’s heavier so you don’t so much attack hills as plod up them but the triple gives a really excellent range of gears.

The CX is 1 mph slower on average than the roadie on the same routes.

Oh and by the way I’ve taken it out on a mountain bike club night ride and up hills and on the flat it leaves the MTBs for dead. Plugging through deep mud and leaf mould in the woods and on narrow muddy flooded singletrack it was also excellent, the narrow tyres cut down for grip and the stiff rear triangle makes it efficient. Going down rocky stuff though it’s hopeless and I was off and walking at one point.

tang – Member

Alex what’s your dimensions? That cross light could be good. I’ve been eying the 1k disc on rosebikes, looks great for the cash.
I’m 5’10” and 32″ inside leg.
Even though I’m a medium on just about everything, I seem to find a few medium cross bikes a little bit of a stretch in my arms/shoulders. Not comfortably having them slightly bent, but wanting to lock them out all the time.
So I’ve decided to downsize in top tube length to around 53cm. Maybe even a 90mm stem.