Cross bike for Road duty

[synthsis]

I'm driving myself (and I'm sure you folks) crazy. So, my LBS is no longer carrying Ridley. Their purchase minimums were too high so they had to drop them. Because of this they are blowing out everything they have left. Right now they have an X-Fire with SRAM Force (I think, gotta check) on clearance for $1050.00. I'm sure I can get that to be a crisp stack of 10 Hundreds with little effort. I've never ridden Cross but I'd give it a shot. The bike would mainly be doing Roadie duty since I have a mountain bike as well. I know I'd have to change out my tires, which isn't a bike deal but are there any other things to consider if I want to use a Cross on the Road?

[username]

are there any other things to consider if I want to use a Cross on the Road?

none that I can think of, I put about 1500 road miles, including a couple metric centuries, on my cross bike in the last year

[mrothwell]

Cross bikes are find for road duty, but for pure road riding, a road bike is better. It'll be lighter, handle better, and possibly ride better.

It also used to be that cross bikes had really low gearing, though I haven't shopped for one in a while.

[merckx56]

A cross bike will be fine on the road. I ride my cross bikes on the road in the winter to keep the Ridley from getting gunked up.

For $1050, go buy the X-Fire. NOW!

And cross bikes ride no differently than a road bike. The handling might be a bit slower due to differences in geometry, but it's something you either get used to, or in your case, as you've never had a road bike, you won't notice.
They aren't any more harsh riding than a high end road bike. My Ridley Helium rides more harshly than either of my CX bikes.
A road bike won't necessarily be lighter either. That X-Fire with Force is gonna weigh right around 18 pounds. Most $1000-ish dollar road bike will weigh 4-5 pounds more.
My Salsa Las Cruces is outfitted with full 7800 Dura-Ace, and a full carbon fork, and it weighs 18.2 lbs. My Helium is full 7900 D/A w/Rotor cranks and weighs 16.2 lbs.
With road tires on it, I notice NO difference as far as weight is concerned. Wanna save weight? Drop 5 pounds. It's cheaper...

Sure, the chainrings are probably smaller than what would come on a road bike, but it really won't hold you back. I have a 46/39 on my Salsa, and a 48/38 on my Jericho. I don't have any issues staying in the group until the ride gets to the sprint points. 20-25-28 mph isn't an issue.
If you want to race CX, leave the rings alone. If you plan on using it as a road bike, buy some bigger rings.

Buy some road tires, or if you have the scratch, get another set of wheels, and just switch wheels out.

If my shop had THAT bike for a G, it would already be sitting in my bike building, and I'd apologize to the wife later...

[synthsis]

uh oh, Merckx really has my attention now. I should have mentioned it but I currently ride a Giant DEFY3 with a Shimano triple setup on it. It's been a good bike but I feel like it's holding me back a little bit. Not sure if it's the groupset or what.

[Papa Dras]

Basically everything that Merckx said is how I feel. I run my Kona JTS with a set of roady tires and there is very little different than riding a road bike. Geometry is a little slack and wb is longer, but I have it at about 22lbs with the new wheels and I don't race. I like the ability to put the cross wheels back on and get a little burly with it in the winter.

For me, I had the choice of a cross or road and went cross for the versatility.

[audi666]

what size do you ride and what size is the ridley? have you test ridden it yet? They have quite different geometry than most other things out there. i have a x-ride (same geo just Al frame) and raced it last year for cx and did a couple of road races when the roadie was down. I just finished building up the girlfriends cx race bike which is a x-fire. I went down 1 size from my road bike, she went down 2.

And 1k for an x-fire w/ force is a GREAT deal. worst case buy and flip or let one of us take it off your hands

[merckx56]

uh oh, Merckx really has my attention now. I should have mentioned it but I currently ride a Giant DEFY3 with a Shimano triple setup on it. It's been a good bike but I feel like it's holding me back a little bit. Not sure if it's the groupset or what.

I'll guar-an-damn-tee you that the Ridley is lighter than your road bike. And what was said about the sizing of RIdley CX bikes is true. I ride the equiv. of a 56/57 road bike, and needed a 54cm Ridley CX bike at the demo...
The 56cm was TOO big, and rode like a dump truck because of it.

[mrothwell]

A cross bike will be fine on the road. I ride my cross bikes on the road in the winter to keep the Ridley from getting gunked up.

For $1050, go buy the X-Fire. NOW!

And cross bikes ride no differently than a road bike. The handling might be a bit slower due to differences in geometry, but it's something you either get used to, or in your case, as you've never had a road bike, you won't notice.
They aren't any more harsh riding than a high end road bike. My Ridley Helium rides more harshly than either of my CX bikes.
A road bike won't necessarily be lighter either. That X-Fire with Force is gonna weigh right around 18 pounds. Most $1000-ish dollar road bike will weigh 4-5 pounds more.
My Salsa Las Cruces is outfitted with full 7800 Dura-Ace, and a full carbon fork, and it weighs 18.2 lbs. My Helium is full 7900 D/A w/Rotor cranks and weighs 16.2 lbs.
With road tires on it, I notice NO difference as far as weight is concerned. Wanna save weight? Drop 5 pounds. It's cheaper...

Sure, the chainrings are probably smaller than what would come on a road bike, but it really won't hold you back. I have a 46/39 on my Salsa, and a 48/38 on my Jericho. I don't have any issues staying in the group until the ride gets to the sprint points. 20-25-28 mph isn't an issue.
If you want to race CX, leave the rings alone. If you plan on using it as a road bike, buy some bigger rings.

Buy some road tires, or if you have the scratch, get another set of wheels, and just switch wheels out.

If my shop had THAT bike for a G, it would already be sitting in my bike building, and I'd apologize to the wife later...

Well, I'm not saying you're wrong, because that Ridley is probably pretty awesome, but I'd rather have an equivalent road bike if all I was going to ride was road. After all, isn't that why you have a road bike AND a CX bike?

[merckx56]

Well, I'm not saying you're wrong, because that Ridley is probably pretty awesome, but I'd rather have an equivalent road bike if all I was going to ride was road. After all, isn't that why you have a road bike AND a CX bike?

The difference is the fact that, even though both CX bikes are relatively high end, I worry less about beating on them. Sure, I still take the road bike down dirt roads, and ride in crap weather, but less thought is given to doing those things on the CX bikes.

The CX bikes give options. I'll do a ride that's 50/50 on the cross bikes, and it's only a few minutes slower than on the road bike.

And sometimes, I just don't want to pull the road bike out. Variety is the spice...

[Saintor]

I am interested in getting a cyclocross because I don't want 700x23-25-28 tires and ultra tight fit brakes. I have old type 27 x 1/4 wheels and they are relatively fragile. The next bigger thing if I get this correctly is 700x35.

[merckx56]

I am interested in getting a cyclocross because I don't want 700x23-25-28 tires and ultra tight fit brakes. I have old type 27 x 1/4 wheels and they are relatively fragile. The next bigger thing if I get this correctly is 700x35.

Wheels for CX are nothing more than road wheels. The tires are bigger. I've ridden every set of my wheels, including my carbon wheels, in races. Never an issue.

As for the brakes, the cantilevers on my Salsa CX bike are waaay more powerful than the calipers on my road bike.

[BsickPassat]

I would like to get a cross bike.... though the first thing I would probably do is swap the stock pads for Kool Stop Salmons...

of course, be using mountain bike pedals on it... (another set of Crank Bros Candy pedals)

[merckx56]

I would like to get a cross bike.... though the first thing I would probably do is swap the stock pads for Kool Stop Salmons...

of course, be using mountain bike pedals on it... (another set of Crank Bros Candy pedals)

Pretty much everyone that rides a CX bike, for whatever reasons, rides MTB pedals. I have Candy SLs on both bikes. Hell, I still ride CB Quattros on my road bike!

[BsickPassat]

Pretty much everyone that rides a CX bike, for whatever reasons, rides MTB pedals. I have Candy SLs on both bikes. Hell, I still ride CB Quattros on my road bike!

On my road bike... I just switched out Look Keo to Speedplay Zeros... if after a year, I still have trouble clipping into Speedplays.... the road bike is getting Crank Bros Candy also....

until someone comes up with 6+ sided entry... I love my 4-sided entry CB pedals on my mountain bike....

[Papa Dras]

Pretty much everyone that rides a CX bike, for whatever reasons, rides MTB pedals. I have Candy SLs on both bikes. Hell, I still ride CB Quattros on my road bike!

I ride clipless and that's all I've seen people ride on CX. I treat it just like a roady.

[GinsterGTI]

I always say that if I had bought my cross bike first (2011 Crux Elite with Sram red) I would not own my road bike. Besides being a little twitchy on the road it really doesn't have any adverse affect on my ability to keep up with a group on the road even with 'cross gearing up front.

This was done with my road wheels on my cross bike. 23MPH avg over 35 miles (with a group of course)


Oh and I'll also third the opinion if the bike fits you go snatch it up!

[Jouko Haapanen]

I love my 2012 X-Fire. It is the Swiss Army knife of bicycles. The S-Works Epic/Tarmac duo often gets overlooked these days when it is time to head out.

We just returned from a little trip to Finland and Norway and took the Ridleys along, riding everything from singletrack to epic road climbs with them. Here are a couple of days in Norway, first on the famous gravel/dirt Rallarvegen and two days later a road ride with a nice long HC climb.

[synthsis]

It's an X-ride with Rival. Pretty big diff between what I originally posted. I'm at the shop now. Gotta pick up my MTN bike.

[benjaminobscene]

buy it

[merckx56]

buy it

This ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

[3dw]

Dude, jump on that!

Man I miss my Ridley CXer....

[the brit]

or if you have the scratch, get another set of wheels, and just switch wheels out.

That's what I do with my cross bike. I usually keep fenders and a rack on it, with road wheels, and just swap out the wheels etc when I do actually go to the one cross race I do a year. I bought a Fuji with 105 for about $700. The Ridley is a much better deal!