juan – Member
Though how does it compares to a HT 26er…?
POSTED 11 HOURS AGO #
Seeing as no one is answering this I will have a go! I will assume that when you say a HT 26er you mean a xc race style bike not a long travel HT. Personally speaking, cross bikes are great for mixing road and light off road and are a lot of fun when ridden like this, they are also a lot of fun on single track and certainly make old routes feel different. But they are a compromise, I found mine a lot harder to descend at speed on than an xc race bike and not quite as nice to ride on the road as a road bike.
I actually did a test route on both xc race bike and the old cross bike, mix of farm tracks, single track (nothing too technical) and road (route about 8 miles long), I was quicker on my xc race bike. Although I would add that I am very at home on the MTB and less so on the cross bike and was done on different days (at the same heart rate range but hardly scientific).
For me if I was going to race cross regularly I would get another cross bike, or if I had the money to have another bike but if it’s just to mix road and off road as a recreational thing I would just go with an xc race bike with semi slicks.