So I’ve not even got to ‘what cyclecross bike’. The wife is now bored and told me to’ask singletrackworld’!

I want a bike to head out on road and connect bits up with trail for short summer rides and winter training. Is this a cyclecross bike, hybrid bike or just mountain bike with road tyres. I don’t know!!!

Like the idea of cyclecross but need to convince myself that circa £900 would be a worthwhile investment. After all I already have 4 bikes. Would consider selling the road bike as it only gets used on the turbo trainer though!

Thoughts appreciated.

Love my cx bike but not for long road rides
But if your going to mix on and off road go for it

How does this differ from an Enduro bike then, which can handle roads with ease?

Firstly it’s Cyclocross, next will you be likely to regret ditching the road bike? If not that may ease the buyer’s remorse a bit and you can still stick any other bike on the turbo should the need arise.

Also can you see yourself getting into cx racing at all? Further justification if you need it.

It doesn’t have to be £900 (although I suspect you already have a specific bike in mind, and costed)…

Just go for it, if you think you have a good use for such a bike and it helps keep you out riding during winter how can it be a bad idea?

Yes

Yes.

There, that was easy 🙂

I’ve asked myself the same

I’m now leaning towards a steel framed charge cooker with funky bars instead

Currently looking at Drossiger CXA3.1 Cyclocross Bike on Merlin Cycles – there are no reviews anywhere on the internet at all for it!

The spec looks good though. My minimum spec would be disc brakes, carbon fork, circa 10kg weight.

Does anyone have one or has seen any reviews?

I got a road bike, then (partly because it was too big, and partly because I spent a lot of time on country roads doing as you did, linking tracks) sold it and got a Peregrine, less cyclocross than all purpose bike. Love it. Do it!

Buy a Specialized Tricross second hand for £300 and go and have fun. 😀

I hated my Tricross, it weighed loads, the geometry was horrendous – I think head tube was longer than the top tube. Awful thing.

Go try one of these Revolution Cross Sport or one of these Whyte Sussex and sell your road bike. You can easily use one of those on the trainer, maybe with a different tyre, and they both fit you minimum spec.

why not

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgoY3T3crZc[/video]

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf8DyAGWfZo[/video]

love mine

Do you really think you will use it ?

I say this because….

Would consider selling the road bike as it only gets used on the turbo trainer though!

Yes, I definitely would use a cyclecross bike. There are a number of rides that I currently do that are say 50% road that would be great on a faster lighter bike. Currently I use a hardtail for these routes.

There are also loads of great runs that have only a small amount of trail that are not possible with a road bike but hardly worth it on a mountain bike.

Whether I would use it enough to justify the cost is a gamble but one I’m willing to take!

Consider a Kinesis Pro6..

Having followed these cyclocross bike threads on here it seems that the Pro6 is a racy and light enough bike that people seem to happily use them on the road instead of a road bike.

I built up a 22.5lb Genesis Croix de fer and a 20.5lb Genesis Equilibrium.

Although the Equilibrium has its good points, riding offroad, even if it is just bridleways and the Common across the road, is such a blast that the Equilibrium is only used if the mud is really bad.

And that’s with the heavier croix def fer (although not as heavy as a retail build), the pro6 should be lighter, although less comfy (a specialized pave seatpost is a good route apparently)

A bit over your budget but I would try and find one to ride.

I bought a 2012 Revolution Cross Pro for under £500 a few months back and I love it for pretty much exactly the type of riding you describe. It did keep me interested in riding on some pretty grim days over the winter.

BUT, (and I know it’s the answer you don’t want to hear!) if you’re not doing big road miles or cross racing and aren’t hung up on drop bars you’d arguably get similar versatility by just getting a spare set of cheap 29er wheels fitted with cross tyres and putting them on one of your existing bikes (they’ll fit most 26er frames no bother).

I did just that on my Surly 1×1 as a comparison and was genuinely surprised how different it felt and how much quicker it was on the road.

30miler to work this morning, fast bit of road to get me out of town, some dirt road action, cobbles pave, swoopy double track, lovely bit of singletrack, another road section, cheeky fp bit, nettles, sustrans route, canal towpath, through town centre, ncn, gravel track through park, more road, riverbank, road, couple flights of stairs, canal tow path and in to work smiling hugely.

I say yes.
Kinesis pro6 here.

I absolutely love mine.
It’s a CX bike with full set of bosses, discs and suicide levers.

Did 114k on it last week with no problems. Nice to be able to mix green lanes, bridleways and road in the same ride.

Use it for exactly what you describe.
BikeHub is a superb app for finding quiet routes. Can’t stand busy roads.

Can’t believe I’d gone so long without one really (discs were the deciding factor).

There is a significant difference in a drop bar bike verses flat bar in that the drop bar bike encourages you to get out of the saddle for climbing/sprinting much more – and I bought such a bike precisely for that reason as I find it better for getting/maintaining leg fitness.

Like the idea of cyclecross but need to convince myself that circa £900 would be a worthwhile investment. After all I already have 4 bikes.

hmmm, just bought a CX bike as a 5th bike for the sort of purpose you describe! Having decided to get one my criteria were similar to you: disc brakes and carbon forks. I picked up the 2013 Saracen Hack 2 reduced to £650 from 1100, there’s always deals around so you’ll only spend £900 if you want to.

I hated my Tricross, it weighed loads, the geometry was horrendous – I think head tube was longer than the top tube. Awful thing.

This seems to be the consensus opinion on the tricross.

Tricross has been discontinued for 2015

Dodged a bullet there then!

Just watched the orange video. The marketing was exceptional. I definitely want one now!

So, ive decided I ‘need’ a Cyclocross bike!

The next question is what size frame. Most websites say that for my height 5’7″ to 5’8″ a 54cm frame woudl be about right. Intuitively this seems large (I ride mountain bikes normally). With relativel;y short legs (29″ to 30″ inside leg) is this the right size or would a 52cm be better??

Ta.

fit is everything, moreso than on a MTB, so you need to sling a leg over a few. Based on your sizes I’d have thought a 54 could be a bit too big, but as I say, have a try on a few

My robust tourer is a 54cm; I’m about 5′ 8″ – maybe tad more – and it’s about right for fit. Depends how much road character and how much off-road character you’re after, but mine seems responsive enough for narrow singletrack so I’d say 54cm would be your starting point..

Im just over 5’9″ and just fit most 54s some are too big some small but mostly im 54 is suggest starting point for your size would be 52 tbh or something around 53ett

I’m 5ft 9in with the same inside leg and got a Boardman CX team size small.I swapped the stem to a smaller 90 mm and use an inline seatpost rather than the layback that came with it I tried a couple of sizes in Halfords first.
My advice fwiw
Go for a 50/34 chainset if you can, a higher gear for road and a lower gear for climbs
Get a big cassette on the back .I have a 11-32 and use the 32! You’d need it on some of the climbs in that Orange vid 🙂
Toe overlap-be aware there may be some especially with smaller frames.
The Boardman CXs are good but whatever bike you eventually go for the Kinesis CX wheelset will improve it and is a worthy upgarde.Lighter than many road wheelsets for the price and you can probably recoup half the cost selling on the original wheelset unused.Or keep a set of wheels with slicks for on road and a set with CX tyres for off.

I hated my Tricross, it weighed loads, the geometry was horrendous – I think head tube was longer than the top tube. Awful thing.

This seems to be the consensus opinion on the tricross.

Where as I love my Tricoss. But it is the older carbon fibre model. The cheaper all alloy ones were a bit gash.

I run it on 35c Smart Sams, which seem to be fantastic all-round tyres.

If I could only have one bike, a decent CX set up for touring would be it. Jack of all trades and all that . . .

Go for a 50/34 chainset if you can, a higher gear for road and a lower gear for climbs

I use a 48/34 with a 12-30. I would prefer a 14-32 but I don’t think you can get those ratios?

I have loads of bikes and I chop and change quite a bit.. It’s all part of the fun 🙂

What I have learned over last 4 years is I’ll never be without a cx bike 🙂 🙂

And I’ve often thought if I had to choose only one bike due to an “Armageddon” type incident !! It would be a cx bike with a spare set of road wheels … Easily the most versatile bike ever made(IMHO)

So yes hurry up and buy one 😉

Check out the Tripster thread..

One thing that caught me out on frame size for a CX bike is bottom bracket height. I’m 6’1, ride a 56cm road bike and bought a 56cm Ridley on Ebay. The bottom bracket was so high on the Ridley I reckoned it was good for someone 3 to 4 inches taller who wanted a very short top tube. I finished up with a Specialized Crux with measured up the same as my road frame.

I went with a very trad Singular Kite. It’s great, rides smoothly; steel forks ride well despite the heft- and a
I quite like the canti’s for their simplicity. It’s going to be the winter commuter bike as well.

I’m 6’1, ride a 56cm road bike and bought a 56cm Ridley on Ebay. The bottom bracket was so high on the Ridley

But then ridley cx sizing is so different. a 52 is actually a 56

http://www.ridley-bikes.com/be/en/bikes/4/cyclocross

So that 56 ended up being a 60! (they measure c-c instead of c-t like everyone else)

I ride a 56 road bike, 54 cross bike and the ridley 52 fitted me perfectly

NO!!

its the ultimate compromise bike that is no good for anything. Really, how many 50:50 rides will you do? If you fancy dirt / rocks etc then take the mtb and if you fancy a fast spin / training ride / social club ride then take the road bike. Some of the journeys described above do sound awesome but I doubt they will ever happen for most people.

CX bikes are v heavy and slow compared to a proper carbon (beauty) road bike but must be v uncomfortable and impractical for off road. Even ox droves on Salisbury Plain must be more fun on a mtb. Isn’t that what hardtails are for?

Yes. It makes the local riding more interesting. HH45 is correct it’s a compromise bike but unlike him I don’t think that’s bad. I use mine more than either my mtb or road bike, linking easy offroad and backroads but it’s also kept up with mtb on local group rides and it’s been used at trail centres too. I’ve used it as a kiddy trailer towing vehicle, commute bike and done cx sportive.

Do it.

and don’t forget racing! Great fun

Hh45 have you actually ridden one?
Did a similar route as yesterday on my 29er this morning and apart from a couple of steep DHs I added today I was wishing I had brought the CX again. Tbh most of my CX riding is commuting. I commute from a large town to a large city so inevitably there’s a fair amount of flat dirt roads and sustrans tracks, inevitable road sections and as much/little proper xc as I want, CX is perfect for that.

All road take the road bike, all trail the MTB, mixture of both (or not enough space for multiple bikes?) – CX*. Not so much a compromise as just a bike for riding. I’m not going to take it up skiddaw and I’m unlikely to do a sportive on it (although light wheels and tyres it’d probably manage) but most stuff in between….

*some have argued that what most of us actually want is a tourer but I’ve not seen many lightish disc braked tourers. Maybe the current slacker CX bikes are like the comfier “sportive” road bikes that have been going the last few years

I’ve been in this position and bought two cyclocross bikes, first was a boardman team. I didn’t like it. It weighed far too much for road rising and was so slow off road.

Second time round I bought a carbon guerciotti for £2000, really light bike with cantis. I had much more fun on this bike howerver I ended up selling ti as it wasn’t a road bike and wasn’t a mountain bike.

The idea of ‘linking bits up’ is fantastic and I still think about it whilst out on my road bike however the reality of it is not that great.

I’d stick to what you got, but thats just me.