Originally Posted by
tarwheel
Cross bikes make great commuters. I agree about drop bars. One of my bikes had bullhorns, which I liked but they provided nowhere to hide on windy days. So I ended up putting drop bars on that bike as well.
The big issues with using a cross bike for commuting is finding one with the right geometry for you, and also getting one with mounts for fenders and racks. For some reason, a lot of CX frames seem to have short head tubes and long top tubes, which is not my preference. That rules out the Surly and Soma CX frames for me. My CX bike is a Ritchey Breakaway Cross, which fits me perfect and also has fender/rack mounts. Unfortunately, the Ritchey Swiss Cross is strictly racing and has no mounts for fenders and racks.
Thanks for the insight.
I am intending to put fenders on this bike, but perhaps not a rack.
I haven't really been riding long enough to have developed a preference for a type of frame. Both my drop-bar bikes feel fine to me. One is a vintage racer, the other an endurance road bike. I do know that I don't like the flat bar set-up or the hybrid set-up, but I can't put bigger/studded tires on my drop bars.