Salty seadog
Space Cadet...(3rd Class...)
Nice
Jumping ship from road bike to Mtb
- Thread starter johnnyb47
- Start date
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Nice
Heltor Chasca
Out-riding the Black Dog
I've just been for a very enjoyable 40 mile ride on the MTB. 20 miles where along the Shropshire union canal which was teaming with holiday makers. Stopped along the way to watch the boats in the locks, got talking to a lady from South Africa who was on a boating holiday ,and the icing on the cake was seeing a huge steam train come thundering across the Chirk viaduct blowing its whistle ( a beautiful sight to see ),while I was on the adjacent aqueduct. I mandatory beer on the way round competed the ride off nicely. I think as most of have already said I will share my ride outs between the road bike and MTB. It keeps cycling that little bit more varied ( which can't be a bad thing at the end of the day :-) :-)
Heltor Chasca
Out-riding the Black Dog
Average speed only an ‘inth’ less than running ‘roadesque’ style tyres. Negligible when you take off-road grip and comfort into account. Schwalbe Smart Sams are great. They do spray more crud about than slick tyres but that’s typical. I would do something like the TINAT Audax in Wales on this.
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
I just spent a week in the Harlech area with my CAADX. A cyclocross bike is a gravel bike by another name, as far as I can see! It doesn't have quite the zip of my CAAD5 road bike but it was ideal for more relaxed holiday riding on all sorts of surfaces. It has 35mm semi-slick tyres which roll pretty well on good tarmac but can cope with poor road surfaces too. So another vote for a gravel/cyclocross bike.
I lowered the gearing on mine. One test ride on 20-25% Yorkshire climbs taught me that I don't like doing steep ascents in a 36/30 gear. I now have a much nicer 34/36 bottom gear which gets me up them without the pain!
Globalti
Legendary Member
But is a cyclocross bike like a gravel bike? I advised a buddy to get a CX bike for winter riding and it turned out to be bad advice - he couldn't get comfortable on it no matter how much he tweaked it and it wouldn't take mudguards. I suppose it was as much the shop's fault, but gravel bikes hadn't been invented at that time. I reckon CX bikes are designed for speed for an hour of racing but not for endurance, though I may be talking nonsense.
Vantage
Carbon fibre... LMAO!!!
- Location
- Behind everyone else, Bolton
I thought mine was gnarly but blaaaaaaady hell lol
Vantage
Carbon fibre... LMAO!!!
- Location
- Behind everyone else, Bolton
As with @Heltor Chasca , there isn't much a tourer can't cope with.
The Raleigh was the most 'roadie' like of my 3.
The biggest limiting factor of the Vantage was me.
The Spa is also coping pretty damn well with everything I chuck at it.
The Raleigh was the most 'roadie' like of my 3.
The biggest limiting factor of the Vantage was me.
The Spa is also coping pretty damn well with everything I chuck at it.
- Location
- Somewhere wet & hilly in NW England.
Agreed.
Pure CX bikes are pretty aggressive racing machines.
Gravel or chubby tyred endurance are better bets for rough roads/light offroad imo.
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
In that case, the CAADX must really be a gravel bike rather than the cyclocross bike it is always sold as!
Actually, I would say it is a bit on the heavy side for racing anyway, ~10kg even without the rack and mudguards.
I have a rack on the CAADX (as you can see in my photo of it, above) and some heavy duty mudguards which I have not yet fitted. They will fit with the 35 mm tyres on and there are mounting points for them. (The reason I haven't put them on is that the front fork is so beefy that the original front mudguard bolt is too short and I haven't got round to buying a longer one yet.)
Kajjal
Guru
- Location
- Wheely World
I have a gravel bike after waiting years for that type of bike to be available. I use it on road in the winter and off road in the drier months. It works well if you have to do some road sections on your ride between the off road parts. Its only on the very rough or very loose stuff it runs into trouble. For pure off road and the rougher trails I stick to a mountain bike. The only drawback with my gravel bike is it has 34 /50 & 11-32 gearing which can run into trouble on steep hills off road.
I run a couple of CX bikes one has fittings for rack and guards the other doesn't, I have done 100+ mixed terain on the On One Pickenflick, it's very comfortable. The Kinesis Pro 6 is fairly new to the stable but a 60+ mixed terrain ride was fine, I run them tubeless at 45 to 55 psi, this helps with comfort.
mustang1
Guru
- Location
- London, UK
This.
Weekdays is usually road bike with some MTB. Weekends is usually MTB with some road bike.
StuAff
Silencing his legs regularly
- Location
- Portsmouth
The line between cyclocross bikes and gravel/adventure ones has always been a bit blurry, even before the latter term was invented (Specialized Tricross, my own Trek Portland, were gravel precursors, plenty of cross bikes take racks and mudguards). Both male and female winners on the Dirty Kanza 200 this year were riding a CAAD X.....
Salty seadog
Space Cadet...(3rd Class...)
just got in from 15 miles round some pretty gnarly trails.
