Marketing ******it and "adventure road"

[stevenshand]

What's the difference twixt an adventure road bike and a cyclocross bike?

Can't speak for other brands but we do an adventure bike and cyclocross bike that appear similar but I'd summarise the differences ....

1) 'Cross bike will have slightly longer top tube and shorter headtube for given size.
2) 'Cross bike will have no bottle bosses, rack mounts or mudguard eyes.
3) 'Cross bike will have closer to a horizontal top tube for better/easier portage.
4) 'Cross bike will be designed (geometry and tubing profiles) to be ridden fast for 1 hour with no real thought to comfort.
5) 'Cross bike will normally have shorter stays.
6) 'Cross bike won't take into account (from a geo perspective) of the carrying of any bags/luggage front or rear.

As an aside, if I think back to a couple of years ago, we were constantly getting asked for cyclocross bikes but once we got talking to the customer, it became apparent that they didn't really want a cyclrocross bike at all (see points above) but that was the closest thing they'd seen that seemed on the surface to meet their needs (drop bars, bigger tyres). So while I agree there's a lot of BS at the moment around 'adventure' bikes, it is getting easier to explain what these versatile bikes are actually for without resorting to calling them 'kind of cyclocross bikes'.

 

[outlash]

Thanks for that, it's nice to hear that from someone in the 'biz', but what sort of differences are we talking about here 1/2 a degree here a couple of mm there or real wholesale changes that make a real difference?

Tony.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Can't speak for other brands but we do an adventure bike and cyclocross bike that appear similar but I'd summarise the differences ....

1) 'Cross bike will have slightly longer top tube and shorter headtube for given size.
2) 'Cross bike will have no bottle bosses, rack mounts or mudguard eyes.
3) 'Cross bike will have closer to a horizontal top tube for better/easier portage.
4) 'Cross bike will be designed (geometry and tubing profiles) to be ridden fast for 1 hour with no real thought to comfort.
5) 'Cross bike will normally have shorter stays.
6) 'Cross bike won't take into account (from a geo perspective) of the carrying of any bags/luggage front or rear.

As an aside, if I think back to a couple of years ago, we were constantly getting asked for cyclocross bikes but once we got talking to the customer, it became apparent that they didn't really want a cyclrocross bike at all (see points above) but that was the closest thing they'd seen that seemed on the surface to meet their needs (drop bars, bigger tyres). So while I agree there's a lot of BS at the moment around 'adventure' bikes, it is getting easier to explain what these versatile bikes are actually for without resorting to calling them 'kind of cyclocross bikes'.

I've looked at the adventure bikes, I recon they are likely to suite people like me who just want a bike for bimbling round and the odd charity ride, reliability ride or audax, but isn't interested in performance, training rides or fast road work.

 

[jdtate101]

Cyclocross bikes are a little limited for me (I don't race off road at the moment) in that they can't really do anything a MTB can do and a MTB can do everything a CX bike can do and then some more. In certain situations they have an appeal and CX specific races probably won't be won on a MTB but I've alwasy felt CX bikes were a sales gimmick. For those on the fence I always advise getting a MTB and having a blast in the rough stuff.

Tell that to the Belgians....CX has been around a hell of a lot longer than MTB's, it's far from a gimmick and on the continent it's a very serious sport in it's own right, with regular prime time TV coverage and a huge following.

 

[Drago]

Adventure Road = slightly softened geometry CX bike with guff like mudguard eyelets. Easy. The Sportive of the CX world.

Problem is, among the manufacturers that use the term the idea of what constitutes - I can barely bring myself to say it again - an Adventure Road bike seems to mean slightly different things. I guess it's like the birth of the hybrid, which started out as the City Bike and a few other odd names before finally settling down on some fairly common characteristics after a few years.

 

[stevenshand]

what sort of differences are we talking about here 1/2 a degree here a couple of mm there or real wholesale changes that make a real difference?

What you'll find are relatively small changes in isolation but the context of a different design, alongside other changes, then yes, real noticeable differences. Some of these differences will be around fit/positioning and some will be performance/handling. As a rough guide, if we dropped 15mm off the headtube length and increased top tube length by 20mm, while steepening head angle and seat angle by a degree each then you'd notice a massive difference. These are just examples obviously but they give you an idea of the scale of the changes.

 

[outlash]

Thank you . That's what I was thinking, I would hope there's more to it that making a couple of minor geometry changes and adding rack/guard mounts & bottle bosses.


Tony.

 

[PK99]

Specialised have been doing it for years .... tricross started as a cyclocross bike, then they introduced the crux and termed the tricross as an "all roads bike". The two designs diverged, perhaps no surprise then that the replacement for the tricross is the "Diverge"