Has anyone raced Mountain XC on a cyclocross bike?
 

Way off topic, so I apologize in advance, but I figure that ony a road racer who does cross in the offseason would even attempt this challenge. I would like to get a few races in on my CX bike to help my bike handling in the dirt this year. I was wondering if anyone has ever raced a mountain xc race on a cx bike. I realize it is a stupid question, but I am a road racer who dabbles in cross, so I have no clue how difficult mountain xc terrain can be.... No flames please, just "yes" or "no" with simple reason is fine. I'll get the point.

I think it would depend on how steep the climbs and downhills are. I think it could be done but you would want the lowest gearing you could get on the cx bike along with good brakes. I have seen someone race a mountain bike with road bars on a very tough course. I would pre-ride the course for sure.

It would totally be dependent on the course. If its relatively tame, you can get by. Probably ride a cx bike on a short track race.

However true XC races where you are on the bike for 2+ hours, you'll definitely want a normal mountain bike.

Does your cross bike have disc brakes or cantis? I don't think you could carry the necessary speed into corners with typical canti brakes. No doubt you could finish, but you might be riding the brakes every downhill from top to bottom.

I have cantis. Got it, if it is flat, yes, otherwise, no way. Thanks!

I did several CX races on a MTB bike. It's not that big of a deal. It really is about the engine. I wasn't in the top of any of my races, but I wasn't at the bottom, either. There were all sorts of guys that had nice CX rigs that finished behind me. I spent most of my time in my middle ring, so gearing isn't that big of a deal. On the surface that CX races are on, you probably average 15 mph. Hit the big ring for a particularly fast decent or road section. You're good for 30mph there. That's plenty fast.

Just be prepared to suffer for 45 minutes. That's a much bigger deal.

You got the question backwards!

There is a local XC course that a lot of guys like to ride CX on. It's pretty tame, but fast. Some minimal rootage and a few short, steep climbs. I did a race there last season and there were a few guys in the Sport class that were riding CX bikes, I'm not sure how they did, but they were on a pretty good team.