Commuting - Opinions: Rocky Mountain cyclo cross solo cx

Can this cyclocross be commuterized? Anyone have one - is there room for very wide tires for winter and fenders? (Surly puts right on their web site that they accept up to 700c x 45 - is this unique or is it good marketing? )

thank you for your time.

I don't know about the tires, but my better half has one and he's definitely got fenders on it. It's very light and agile and great for commuting. Not that I can very often convince him to try riding to work on a bike.

I think it depends on the year it was made. it's certainly built up for racing, not commuting as there are no rack mounts, sometimes not even fender mounts on racing CX bikes.

I'm not 100% sure if your particular version has rack mounts or not.

The CXR is the competition (carbon fiber) version and probably not suitable for commuting. The CXD is an all-aluminum disc brake version (it's a pain putting racks on disc brake bikes, though not impossible). The CX is the lowest priced version, all aluminum with braze-ons for racks and fenders. This is the one my s/o has. http://www.bikes.com/main+en+01_102+SOLO_CX.html?BIKE=605&Y=2009#2

My Cyclocross bike is a Kona Major Jake. It is a racing purebred but I still use it for commuting happily and have fenders on it 1/2 the year. There are no tabs but zip ties work just fine. If there is room for clearance, fenders should not be an issue. I like to commute on fast bikes :)

Well, its been ordered. I figure I'll see when it arrives what fenders to get, Rhodabike what fenders did your significant other get? Is there room for wide tires for the winter?

Thanks again for your input, I'm excited for next week or so...

:D

He's only had it since March (last year's model, on sale), so it's only had two sets of tires on it so far, the knobbies it came with and some 700X28c road tires installed after spring road cleaning. I don't really know what the tire limit is. The fenders are some old Zefals he found in his vast stash of accumulated bike stuff. (Cyclists are the biggest packrats...:rolleyes:) Since it has the cantilever brakes, any fender that works on a touring bike will work on this one.

Most CX bikes accomodate 35cm~38cm. For commuting, I dunno why you would need any bigger. But with fenders, you may be limited to 32cm~35cm

I'm pretty sure the tires it came with were 35c, and he got the fenders on with them, no problem. The width of the rims is probably the limiting factor.