n-1

slimming down the bikes a bit, so:

could/would you:

ride 100 miles on the road on a CX bike with the right tyres?
fit a child seat to a CX bike?
tow a trailer with a CX bike?
sell a hardtail and road bike to buy the above?

Ride my CX, with childseat on the back and also ride it on the road it’s also the turbo trainer bike.

Yes.
Never tried
Yes
No

Yes
Yes
Yes
No

Yes
Don’t know
Don’t know
Maybe.

My road bike is my +1 really, I think it’d be the first to go if I could only have N bikes.

i cant see me selling my hardtail.

but i would chop in a road bike for a cx so long as it could take, guards, rack, it would naturally take a child seat and trailer if required. Still happily ride it as (far as) a road bike on the right tyres.

Yes
Yes
Yes
No

There are “proper” CX race bikes that could be used as fast road-riding bikes. But generally they don’t have mounts for racks/guards so aren’t really suitable as “utility” bikes. Personally wouldn’t be without a hardtail and some kind of utility bike. FS and “proper” road bike good optional extras but not essential (for me).

Yes to all of the above. I’ve had a CX bike round Inners and all the trails at GT. It’s faster over a whole lap.

Yes
Yes
Yes
No – well actually maybe if I/you also have a lightweight full-sus (given that the only reason I resurrected my hardtail was to fit a kiddy-seat as my full-sus is carbon).

I probably could/should get rid of a bike as my CX hasn’t been ridden for ages, and with a little work it could easily do the same job as my winter road bike (it’s a Kona with rack/guard mounts and bottle cage mounts) but be ready for conversion back to CX in half an hour when I needed by removing rack and guards and refitting knobbly tyres.

could ride 100miles on the hardtail with the right tires (making it easier), could fit a child seat and you could tow a trailer with the hardtail

but if you want a new bike by all means go for it – but dont look at it as a money saving scheme.

Depends if you want to do any mtb’ing I suppose or what the trails are like from your door. A CX is a nice compromise – it will handle OK off road, they can be good on road. But would I rather have a CX instead of an MTB and a road bike? No.

Are you trying to release net cash from the sale of the mtb and road bike and purchase of the CX? If so, that must mean they are both fairly high value and therefore ride rather nicely. Buying a CX with the funds might not get you quite such a nice ride.

Or do you not have space for both road mtb?

child seat may be hetter on HT.

CX bike finr for other uses.

I have a five I ride most of the time
I have road bike I ride some of the time
I have a hardtail that I ride occassionaly and my wife rides even less often.

So, sell the hardtail, sell the roadbike, get a CX bike to ride with the boy, and my wife can ride the five if she comes to.

I’ve had a CX bike round Inners and all the trails at GT. It’s faster over a whole lap.

Thats like saying you’re faster running the 100m naked with a raw steak strapped over your groin and a lion chasing you. Its quite probably true but why the hell would you want to do it.

Sell the hardtail, sell the roadbike, fit a childseat to the five. Get a BSO for the wife.

glupton1976 – Member

Yes to all of the above. I’ve had a CX bike round Inners and all the trails at GT. It’s faster over a whole lap.

Wasn’t my experience tbh- fast on the smooth bits but inners climb made things very hard work with the rubbly surface on the last leg and the features on the way up. I’m quicker on a sensibly fast hardtail.

faster than his kona dawg FR bike – it weighed a tonne- running round with the cx bike on his shoulder woulda been faster than him mincing on the kona 😉