Cyclocross or touring

[PedalMasher]

Here's my dilemma.

I want to tour and race cyclocross this year. I can't decide which one I want/like more (possibly leaning towards touring). I can't buy both bikes.

Should I buy a cross bike such as redline or cannondale and convert cassettes/chainrings to touring when I need to? Or should I buy a touring frame (some nice cannondale T400/T2000 used out there) and use this to ride cyclocross. The touring bike are usually around 24 lbs with XT cassettes and triple chainrings, etc. Is that too heavy and will I get smoked if I try to race a 24-25 pound bike? Also the touring bikes I'm looking at are the Cannondale CAAD3 aluminum w/ cro-moly fork. Any input would be appreciated. thx

[climbo]

to race cross you'll want a cross frame, they make fine touring bikes if they have the braze-ons etc, the difference between them is not much. Just change over to a smaller gear for touring and you're set to go. That's what I would do but...

You'll need to make sure you can attach racks etc. to the cross bike as many are set up purely as racing bikes and will not accomodate touring options.

[Nightshade]

The common sense choice is........
figure out which is more important to you then
buy / build a used bike for the other.