grantman18

I have seen several threads about using a cyclocross bike for touring...but do any of you think it's feasible to use a bike for both?

I plan on going cross country self-supported with a friend of mine from Boston during July and August of 2008, so I need a pretty robust touring bike. However, I am also very interested in racing cyclocross during the upcoming season. I don't really have room in my wallet or my apartment for 2 new bikes. Would it be possible for me to use a CX bike to go cross country?

I suppose I would need two different wheelsets. Are there any CX bikes that would hold a full load of front and back racks? I could always tour with a trailer but I like the idea of having everything on the bike. I also plan on using the bike to commute to and from work after CX season. This would be set up as a tourer, with stronger wheels and slicker tires.

I'm trying to find a way to get the versatility of a touring bike, but still not have it be overly heavy. I'd also prefer not to use a triple crankset for CX...but is it virtually impossible to get across the country on a double w/ a full load?

Am I asking too much?

Thanks,
Andrew

jbpence

i am new to touring, but have done plenty of research and asked the same question recently as I prepared for a tour I am leaving on soon.

the specialized tricross (but not the sworks version, no eyelets) for sure has the eyelets for the racks and fenders and I bet a lot of the cross bikes do. I think it would be a compromise touring bije, and maybe a pretty god one, with possibly harsher ride than a steel bike. I bet a Surley Crosscheck (steel) would work even better. Maybe not the best of the best of touring bikes, but probably pretty decent, and a good cross bike too.
maybe someone else could chime in?

tgbikes

Volpe by Bianchi goes threw changes from year to year. some years they are as good a compramise as you could find, other times they come without fork brazeons.

martianone

I've done a couple week long trips with my Cross Check,
installed a rear rack and large Arkel panniers, plus a handlebar bag.
The bike rode and balanced fairly well with a load, I have 42-622 tires; probably they helped the ride.
I did get a little heel strike, had to tweak the panniers. My total ride weight was about 120 kg,
you could feel some bike frame flex loaded, that you didn't feel unloaded. A front rack and
panniers would have clearly helped balance the load and no doubt made daily packing and unpacking
easier. For my short trips it worked ok, on a longer trip would probably want a more touring
focused frame.

lighthorse

grantman,
You can tour crosscountry unsupported on a bike of any kind. If you want to carry panniers, then a bike that has eyelets may be called for. Beyond that it just personal preference.
My first ever tour was the Southern Tier on my LeMond Buenos Aires with two heavily loaded rear panniers. The bike was completely stock: wheels, triple Ultegra gearing, and I used 700X25 tires. It worked fine.
For my tour this year I purchased a "touring" bike and loaded it with two rear panniers. This bike is much heavier than my LeMond and therefor requires a lot more energy to get it up the mountains. It also uses XTR/XT drive train but I used a much smaller cassette than came stock. I do believe that if it were to be run over by a small car it would come out of the incident just fine. Do I "need" the touring bike to tour? NO. But I want more bikes so now I have one more.

I note that you are looking to use four panniers thus requiring eyelets both front and rear. Before you make that decision you might take a hard look at how much stuff you absolutely need to tour. Most of us take way more stuff than we ever need. Look at the size of some of the panniers and imagine how much stuff you can put in them. You may not need four.

grantman18

thanks for all of your opinions...

just a quick questions...i noticed that some forks have an eyelet on each side of the dropout. Is that necessary to mount fenders as well as a front rack? A lot of bikes have one set of eyelets on the front and rear dropouts, but I've noticed that most touring-specific rigs have 2 sets of eyelets.

I'm not worried about the extra weight while on tour, but I was hoping to also use the bike for cyclocross, so a lighter frame would make racing easier

spinninwheels

Andrew:

You're right about the double, a triple would be better. I met another rider while on tour last year, IN THE MOUNTAINS. He was pulling a BOB, but still rather lightly laden. He said his critical speed (speed at which he couldn't turn over the cranks) was about 10 kmph (6 mph). For a frame of reference (with my triple), my critical speed is about 6 kmph (3.5 mph) with a 24-34 gear.

staehpj1

It is a good idea to get some of the weight forward. If you don't need to carry enough to justify two large pannier on the back and also front panniers, I would suggest using 4 smaller panniers (ones designed to be front panniers) and using 4 rather than just two large ones on the back.

The bike will handle better with a balanced load and all of the weight won't be on the rear wheel, which is most at risk for flats, tire wear, and broken spokes already even without a load.

This is just a suggestion as folks have made it work with just about any configuration that you can imagine.

jjones

Soma Double Cross

The optional fork has brazeons for low rider racks.

https://www.somafab.com/frames.html

gcl8a

Aside from your foot hitting the panniers, a cross bike is probably more prone to speed wobble (especially without some weight on the front?). Or at least, this is what I've heard -- I'd be curious to hear what experienced tourers have found.

Gunnar Cross Hairs is another option. Independent Fabrications makes something, as well.

Bekologist

two bike option.

Buy a crosscheck, ride it this winter, try it out on a couple of weekend tours. if it is subpar, sell it, and buy a LHT complete. both should be around 1000 bucks from your local LBS, you can probably sell a six month old crosscheck for 500-600 dollars, giving you two bikes for 1500.

if you like the crosscheck, load it up and go. it will likely be as good as any bike used for Bikecentennial.

However, I've heard anecdotally that the Crosscheck is not ideal for touring either...just saw a couple in the bike shop riding Vancouver BC to San Franscisco. he was on a Crosscheck, she was on a LHT, their consensus was the Crosscheck 'not so great' for the tour. they raved about the LHT.

bokes

I'm in a similar position, altho i don't race CX, but I'd prefer something a bit zippier than a full-on touring bike when i go road riding or commuting.
I'm right now building up a Gunnar Rock Tour as my all purpose bike. The chainstay lengths, BB height, and the head tube angle is about halfway between a Surly XCheck and a LHT. It uses 26" wheels, which are more available outside of North America and Europe than 700c.
I'll ride it for a couple of months under all conditions and if I find it is too much of a compromise, I'll sell it and keep 2 bikes, a LHT and a sport touring frame.
Btw, on my cross country trip, I ran into several tourists with XChecks and Volpes (all were using panniers). They all liked them and said the bikes rode fine with the weight.

3kmi

i toured across the US with a friend riding a specialized tricross with fully loaded front and rear racks. another on the same tour road a tricross with a BOB trailer. the guy with the BOB trailer had an issue with his rear drop on the drivetrain side snapping off. im not sure if it was the added weight of the BOB or not be aware of that, idk if that issue has been fixed or if it was a prominent issue, but it happened.

Muttsta

I rode from Alaska to Panama on a Cannondale Cyclocross Disc and the bike held up great
It survived countless crashes and drops yet still looks brand new
Even the wheels that originally came on the bike held up pretty good
I would highly recommend the bike, but one thing you should do right away before leaving on your trip is change your rear casette
My bicycle has only two chainrings in the front, and orignally had a 12-23 cassete in the back, which I found out was very unforgiving on 15% grades
After 6000 kilometers I changed over to a 12-27, which was much better
I didn't find a need for 'granny gears', in fact, I was climbing most hills later on on my big chain ring and my 27 in the bag
I would only switch to my small chainring on the steepest of steep hills

Cave

Volpe and Crosscheck popular for both.

Have you considered a MTB? Don't know how competitive it would be in cyclocross, but some of the lighter XC hardtails look like they would work OK for both. (I'm thinking a 2nd hand Cannondale Terra that I'm resisting buying locally...).

I looked at a Jake the Snake a while back but didn't like the look of the rear end for loading up (lightweight tubing).

Cave

My speed exactly for getting off and walking.

Your speed will be much lower on hills with a load.

Re lightweight packing - https://www.bright.net/~mziegler/Befo...ikepacking.htm ; the ultralight list on this forum; https://www2.arnes.si/%7Eikovse/weight.htm touring on a road bike.

Raven Stands Al

Dood, when was your "first ever" tour?

Hezz

While I am interested in bike touring I am not interested in riding a heavily laden bike. I am trying to build up a superlight go-anywhere bike for superlight touring. By this I mean that I will not use racks and panniers and will have less than 15 pounds of gear or even less for a credit card tour.

My plan is to use a medium size handlebar bag, a small frame bag and lash a medium size stuff sack to the rear of the seat/seatstay area. IF necessary I will carry a 6-7 pound backpack.

I have purchased a Leader cyclocross frame and carbon fiber front cyclocross fork. I want to run wider tires so the bike can deal with dirt roads and have easier shock absorbsion properties for long periods in the saddle. That is why I went with a cyclocross frame. I don't intent to use racks but if I do the frame has rear mounts and I can use Nashbar's front brake stud rack if necessary for carrying a front load at lower center of gravity. If I do use racks I will not use panniers but light stuff sacks. I want the bike to be light enough to enjoy the riding aspects since to me this is the fun of touring and not the camping.

I think if you plan to use a bike to tour in this way a cyclocross frame should do well. If you want to carry heavy loads with racks and panniers then a dedicated touring frame would probably be better suited to the task.

fat_bike_nut

People have toured on Surly Cross-Checks, Bianchi Volpes, and SOMA Double-Crosses before, and did fine.

splandorf

As long as the chain stays are long enough for your feet not to hit your panniers (or you have panniers/racks that can be shifted back far enough), any cyclocross bike should be pretty good for touring too.

The Soma DoubleCross can be thought of as a slightly nicer Surly CrossCheck (Reynolds 831 steel instead of 4130 CroMo), but it comes with mid-fork and bottom-fork braze-ons for a front rack -- makes a great tourer, I did some overnights on it fully loaded down w/ racks and panniers and it was great. I had Ortlieb/Tubus panniers and racks, which allowed me to adjust the pannier position pretty far to the back. There was no problem with heel strike. Balance was great, etc.

pasopia

I toured Japan last summer on a crosscheck, as did my friend, and we were both very pleased. I didn't have a problem with pannier heel strike, but I do have the expedition jannd rack that is really long. I can't speak for cross cycling since I have never done it, but the crosscheck makes a great all around bike. All that being said I bought an LHT and I prefer it slightly for touring, but I think that is mostly because the frame is a better fit.

cyccommute 

I'd look at it the other way around. A cross bike is, or at least used to be, a modified touring bike. The geometry of the cross bikes is slightly different now days but a touring bike would still make a pretty good cross bike. If you want a lighter one, look at a Cannondale T1 or T2 (T2000 and T800 for 2007). The frame is a little lighter than the LHT. It'd be pretty easy to swap out the touring parts or just use them as is. A triple crank can be made into a double very easily by removing the inner ring and adjusting the inner stop. If you want to go touring, put the ring back on. Pretty simple.

Robert_in_ca

Or use an LHT for cross. Problem solved.

TheBrick

Why not buy what ever cyclo cross bike you like as long as it has eyeletts and then get a second pair of steel fork with mounts for a frount rack (because I guess most cyclo cross bikes coem with carbon forks) and a tripple crank set? Quickly swap over the bits for a touring bike and swap them back and you have a cross bike. A pair of cranks and fork will not take up much room in your flat.
(may have already been said by someone)

beowolf

Who says it's impossible to get across the country on a double?