Cyclocross - Converting an old road bike to CX???

Hi,

I am on a budget right now so I am going to convert an old chromolly nishiki road bike to a CX bike to try it out. Has anybody done this before? I was going to install barcon shifters, a mountain bike stem, and a CX fork with cantilever studs. Any other helpful hints would be appreciated.

yeah go to the roadbikereview.com forum, there is a guy there who put on a cross fork with front cantis, and a u brake rear brake.

i have an old nishiki that i converted to a fixed gear, and on my bike, theres a lot of room for big rubber in the back.

jeremyb

I use and old touring bike which was easy to set up since it already had canti front and rear and plenty of space for tires in the frame and fork. It had down tube shifters which I rode a few races with and it was tretcherous shifting so I got some barcons and they work great and are easy to keep up. I run it now as a 1 x 8 that is a single 42 chainring 12-30 8 speed. I just keep the front derailer on real low to keep the chain on through the bumps.

Hi,

I am on a budget right now so I am going to convert an old chromolly nishiki road bike to a CX bike to try it out. Has anybody done this before? I was going to install barcon shifters, a mountain bike stem, and a CX fork with cantilever studs. Any other helpful hints would be appreciated.

Too bad that somebody doesn't make a clamp on adapter for adding rear cantilever posts to a standard frame. They could mount on the seat stays. It is possible that an old style U-brake (not V-brake) could be made too work. Or if there's a frame builder in your area it may not cost that much to have canti-bosses brazed onto your frame. This is of course assumes you have enough clearance in your frame for knobbie tires. If your bike came with long reach road calipers you may not need to do anything.

Regarding the mountain stem, it may not work if you're planning to use road bars. Standard road bars have a 25.8 or 26.0mm clamp diameter, while mountain bars are 25.0 or 25.4mm (sorry I can't remember the exact number). Anyways, they're generally not compatible.

Check out Sheldon Brown's website (www.sheldonbrown.com). He has lots of good technical info like that.

like this?

http://aebike.com/site/page.cfm?PageID=30&SKU=BR9121

i think it would work

jeremyb

like this?

http://aebike.com/site/page.cfm?PageID=30&SKU=BR9121

i think it would work

jeremyb

Yeah, might work. :-)

like this?

http://aebike.com/site/page.cfm?PageID=30&SKU=BR9121

i think it would work

jeremyb

that is incredibly cool. I think I'd want one of those brake boosters on the front too, though. I think stiffness might be a concern.