Touring - How is the Specialized Tricross Sport for multi-use?

As some here may know, a few weeks back, my wife was hit by a car on her commute home from work. She is healing well, and is eager to get back on the bike. We plan to do a self-supported tour from West Glacier to Jasper in late July/early August. We also do quite a bit of normal unloaded cycling, and she likes to commute to work.

The bike which was a total loss in her accident is a 2002 Specialized Allez. What we are looking for is a bike that will work well for our tour, that with a wheel swap (to something like a ksyrium elite wheelset + normal thin road wheels) will do well as a road cycling bike. She isn't big into racing, but we do group rides, and she likes to move when we're doing those kinds of rides.

So, does the Specialized Tricross Sport fit this well? She rode one today, and said it felt "Great" but a little "sluggish" compared to her full on road bike. This was with the wider rims/tires that come with it stock. Will swapping out for a road wheelset make this bike feel more like a roadbike when unloaded? Any opinions would be greatly appreciated!

(Oh, and now that I saw one in the shop, I am very very tempted to pick one up for me on our tour. For touring my road bike might cut it, but its clear that the Tricross definitely will fit the bill!)

G'day,
I've had one for a few months, unfortunately I haven't used it for the two uses you describe: heavy touring and racing. I've done one very short tour, where it did well, though I didn't load it well - no front panniers, lots of stuff on the rear rack, and a somewhat heavy handlebar bag. It was a bit twitchy at speed down hills, but not a big problem, certainly not enough to put me off using it again.

For commuting and generally getting around it's brilliant. Couldn't compare it to a road bike, but I really enjoy it. To make the comparison, I guess you just work out the total weight including racing wheels/tyres?

Steve

Thanks for the info Stevage.

We went to the bike shop yesterday, and they made us an offer we couldn't refuse on 2 '08 Specialized Tricross sports, so now we are the proud owners of matching blue bikes (I told my wife that we'd have to get matching 1-piece speed suits to wear on our tour.. she didn't go for that ;) ).

At the bike shop, they swapped out the wheels/tires for a set of nice Ksyrium's with road tires (almost the same wheel set as the extra I have in the garage). My wife took it for a spin, and to her it felt almost like her old road bike. For the cycling she does: commuting, some 1 to 2 week medium weight touring, and weekend road riding, its going to work great! For me, I now have a touring rig as well as my road bike. Everyone wins! :)

Now I just have to wait until Wed for them to build up my bike, and to go get it fitted. Fun times!

I haven't ridden a TriCross so I can't offer much on the bike's specifics but I can get my own cross racing bike up over 30 mph on the flats and slight climbs pretty easily. The bike's gearing and the rider's abilities will be big factors on the club rides.

On the touring end, there are two or three of these bikes in the FLT Gallery (http://www.fullyloadedtouring.com). Just use the "Edit", "Find" function on your browser once the gallery is open. While cross bikes aren't "ideal" tourers (he says-she says), people have been doing this for years.

So, where there's a will...:thumb:

Cheers,

>While cross bikes aren't "ideal" tourers (he says-she says), people have been doing this for years.

Yeah, so they say. But leaving aside dedicated touring machines like Surly LHT or Kona Sutra, they're pretty good. I've got another trip coming up in two weeks, will report more then. Hopefully I'll have front rack and panniers for better weight distribution.

Steve