Using a Cross bike as your Do-It-All bike

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Permalink Reply by JesseD on March 14, 2013 at 4:19pm

Nick,

At one point I was pondering thinning out the herd to plan on using my CX rig as my do it all.  Some of the responses were insightful.  Check it out.

- Jesse

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Permalink Reply by Steve Smales on June 11, 2013 at 2:44am

Greetings from the UK

 

Yes, absolutely.

 

Have a look at my blog, I've written a piece on this very subject. In short, absolutely can recommend this. I suddenly realised that it was ridiculous to run a Trek Maodone 5.9 with Dura Ace for training, when I could use a top end cross bike that is only a pound heavier, more sure footed, smoother on broken tarmac and can be drawn on as a spare CX race bike if I have a calamity.

 

Have a read, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

 

http://www.smalesy.co.uk/p/blog-page.html

 

Steve

yorkshire

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Permalink Reply by Mark Niskanen on June 14, 2013 at 1:55pm

Nick - Best cycling choice I've made thus far was selling my road bike and using my cx bike as a "do-it-all" bike.  Been doing this for about a year now. Using two wheelsets (one with knobbies and one with slicks) makes it really easy to swap wheels and decide what sort of ride you want to do.  Here are what I think are the pros and cons.  

Pros:

1.You can ride anything.  Join a group for a ride road?  No problem.  Gravel grinder?  No problem.  Singletrack?  No problem.  Granted, having two sets of wheels helps here, but it's still a "pro" imo.  It's the ultimate function over form.

2.If you focus on cx racing like I do, you need be familiar with your cx bike.  Riding it year round helps, especially if you have to make any fit adjustments, etc.

3.This is subjective, but I think cx bikes look cooler.

Cons:

1.None.  It's cross.  Cross rules.  

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Permalink Reply by Todd H. on June 15, 2013 at 5:49am

I end up using my cross bike for road and gravel stuff.  I'm not a road racer so it really doesn't hold me back.   Its more about being too cheap to buy a dedicated road bike.  I do have a question though, any suggestions for a clincher tire that can  handle gravel/farm road use but won't be totally horrible on pavement either?   Thanks, Todd 

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Permalink Reply by David B on July 26, 2013 at 8:52pm

I've had the maxis raze. On road , CX races all conditions, gravel wet dry large small, sandy trail @ 25ish psi, and single track with light rocks including a bit of sharp lava rocks. They are great and roll fast.

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Permalink Reply by Cam Mancuso on June 15, 2013 at 1:52pm

I'm a Cat 2 road racer and have been on my Specialized Crux Pro Carbon the past few months after I sold my Colnago C50. After getting rid of my Cannondale Six13 last year I've gone through 4 road frames that just haven't fit the same, so I have used my cross bike on the road in those "in between" time frames. My newest addition to my steed (Cervelo R3 aka the bike that's fit the best since my Cannondale) is getting painted so as of next week I'll have a road bike again for the first time since February, but my cross bike has been just fine as a "do it all" bike since. I've raced 10-12 big crits this year and a few road races on it and it's worked just fine, I've had a bunch of good results on it. It gets raced at my weekly Tuesday Night crit as well. I run a 110 stem for cross and swapped it to a 120 for the road and flipped it to get a little bit lower, otherwise besides tires that's the only thing I've changed. The geometry would be my only complaint (being a heavy crit racer), I sit a bit more upright on the cross bike, and flipping/slamming my stem only gets me so far when the head tube angle is meant for a more upright position than a road bike. If I was taller I'd sit a little higher in the wind and it'd be more of an issue, but I still can't get toqued over the bike to man handle the bike like Greipel. The gearing is a little bit odd as well, with the smaller chainrings. I have an 11-28 cassette and haven't had any problems spinning out with a 48 in the front but sometimes I have a hard time finding the right gear in the middle of the cassette. I get some crap from guys for being on a cross bike too in road races but it feels that much better when I smoke them in the finish. If I was ever crunched for money or became a cycle-tourist and stopped racing on the road, I'd be fine selling my road bike and using my cross bike as a do it all.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Smales on June 15, 2013 at 11:23pm

My road bike, never seen dirt!

Attachments:

• Crux Carbon.jpg, 121 KB

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Permalink Reply by Greg Stanley on June 16, 2013 at 10:11am

for the question about multi purpose tires (gravel, road, dirt)  I've been using vittoria cross xg pro clinchers for a year and love them---32 mm. file tread in center...small knobs on edge.   I commute 25 miles and day and still find them good on gravel and dirt

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Permalink Reply by Nick DiGangi on June 17, 2013 at 7:28pm

Hey everyone, thanks for all the comments. I just did a 100k gravel ride and will be swapping out my cross wheels for some slicks until the cross season. I am loving my cross bike as my do-it-all. My only regret is that I wish I made the switch earlier

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Permalink Reply by Larry MIller on June 18, 2013 at 9:31am

I have a Disc Cross bike and a Disc 29er.. Thats all I need at the moment since I dont care to much about road racing. I put 25's on my extra disc 29er/cross wheels and go at it. I actually just put 53/39 on her for some training road races.

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Permalink Reply by Tony Cambio on June 19, 2013 at 4:45am

I commute on my Ion, and also ride it on trails, and swap tires, and go on our shop road ride.

I'm proud to say that since I've joined our shop as an employee, we've sold more 'cross bikes this season than we did all last year!

If someone's looking at a nice hybrid, I show them 'cross bikes as the original hybrids.

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Permalink Reply by David B on July 26, 2013 at 8:57pm

I've been contemplating this for a while, sell the litespeed sell the kona snake and get a nice disc CX. Haven't made the move yet!!

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