Cyclocross vs Touring... or?
 

Hey guys, I'm sure you get questions like this a lot but couldn't find anything that fit my exact needs.

I'm looking for a bike for general recreational use, commuting, and long distance riding. I ride every day for at least 2 hours to get where I'm going, and I go on an 7+ hour ride every weekend from Long Island to Manhattan. I plan to do some occasional short-term touring rides as well (maybe a week max or so).
While I'm mostly on pavement, the pavement in the areas I mostly ride around at the moment is crap. Lots of potholes, lots of cracks, lots of debris. The bike I currently have, a cheap cruiser bike (~$350), is always getting busted in one way or another from my riding (currently dealing with bent rims).

So what I'm looking for is a nice, durable bike for crap pavement that can be used for short commutes, long recreational use, and long-distance rides. From what I've read I've seen lots of people point towards Touring bikes and Cyclocross bikes.

Any suggestions, anything I should look for, and any particular bikes you could recommend? Also I was talking to a friend from work who has and recommends a Trek 520 - is this a good suggestion or in the right ballpark?


Thanks <3

I'd recommend the Trek 520 if you can budget for it. It has a track record of durability. The bar end shifters are known to be more reliable than brifters, which my auto-spell utility is fervently trying to change to 'grifters'. There are a lot of other options though. Personally I commute on a slightly modified 2002 Bianchi Volpe. I didn't need the big range so I swapped the Deore RD and 11-30 cassette out for a 105 RD and 12-26 Sram 970. I recently saw the Trek Crossrip series for those who like STI. Jamis has a number of options worth looking at which tend to be leaders at t a price point, such as the Aurora/Aurora Elite for bar end shifter fans, and Bosanova for brifter fans ( I have an early version of Tiagra grifters on my Volpe and they've been pretty trouble-free) Let's see if there are more responses - a great thing about this forum is that people will chime in and make suggestions despite that you did not specify price point, but if you want to get more personalized recommendations, please do suggest budget guidelines.

There are many options out there in these categories (that I agree you might want to pursue), but looking at it from a different perspective think about going to at least 35mm wide tires (like Schwalbe Supremes) or wider. You'll still great if not better than narrower tires and get great rim protection at the same time. Also, look for a bike with adequate tire clearance for these (35-45mm) and maybe fenders if you think you need them.

Check out something like the Surly Straggler, or my Velo Orange Campeur.

if you can give us a budget, your choices become a lot more specific. The main thing I have gleaned from your post is you ride long distances often. for this reason i think the trek 520 or similar bike would be great. you can load it up for those weekend and week long rides, or take the bags off and use the rack to carry things around town. they are durable, built for lots of miles on various terrain. surly long haul trucker or similar also jumps out to me as an easy choice for your needs. lets get more specific and narrow things down some... are you afraid of used bikes? lots of great options if you have a bit of confidence.

good luck

As for budget I'm looking between $800-1600 - whichever will give me the most bang for my buck (and by that I mean the bike that'll last me the longest, least likely to need repairs or heavy-duty maintenance). Biking for me is both my main form of having a good time as well as transportation, so I'm willing to spend an extra buck or two if it goes a long way.

And thank you for the suggestions so far!

So I'm between the Trek 520 and the Trek CrossRip Elite. The 520 would be my choice if I was planning on consistently doing multi-day rides, though someone like me (in med school) doesn't have that much time and would only do maybe 1-2 several day rides in the summer months. If I put a rear rack on my bike the most it would ever need to carry is ~25lbs. Would the CrossRip Elite be good for this?

Thanks again guys!

i have been using a Crossrip ltd for a commuter now for about 2 weeks and love it. I've got a rear rack with tail bag & panniers where I am typically loaded up with about 15 lbs of stuff. My commute is 10 miles each way and have had zero complaints with the bike. The dual brake setup is nice so the brake lever is always at the ready in case of emergencys. The frame is rigid so you aren't losing a lot of power but the carbon fork soaks up a lot of the bumps & vibration.

Not to confuse things. But look into a Soma Doublecross. You could buy it complete..but it may be cheaper to buy the frame/fork and build it up with simple components. I'm under 1k on mine and it works like a champ.

+ 1 on the soma doublecross for the kind of riding you describe. The Trek 520 is a true touring bike; the doublecross has a shorter wheelbase. The doublecross should handle a bit better for all round riding; the 520 should handle a bit better when loaded up with panniers.

i am impressed that you are taking 7 hour rides on a cruiser

Yes! Think of a Cylocross as a racing bike that can fit wider tires! With a max weight of 25lb on the rack, most racing bikes can handle it. It could feel a little funny when pedaling hard, but for the most part, it should be a non event.

I've been blessed to owne a full touring and a CF road racing bike with panniers that I use for my commute. My most fun bike to take is the road racing bike! I would use it 100% of the time if it wasn't for the fact that it doesn't have Dynamo lighting and fenders like the touring does. So for fair weather and short night rides, I take the road racing Giant with rack and panniers (this are small front panniers, mounted on a rear rack).

The only time I would take the touring is, if I'm carrying more than 20 lb of cargo, which is very seldom.

My next bike, God permitting, is a high end cyclocross bike that I would equip with rack, fenders and Dynamo to make it my ultimate commute/light touring machine.

Double O

Lower in the range .. competition cyclocross, wont have any fittings for racks, Mudguards or maybe even a water-bottle mounts

After all, CX Races are "only" an hour of laps +1..

Thanks again guys for the suggestions! Also looking into the Cannondale CAADX bikes since I got to try one out a the local Cannondale dealer. Oh man trying to choose and buy a new bike isn't easy!

And yeahh I guess the bike is more of a "urban commuter" / cruiser bike, but still it's no easy feat. It doesn't always hold up well and I need to make on-the-go adjustments while I'm out there. The worse part is riding near the sea with the high-bar position... I'm practically a kite in those headwinds.

Depends on whether you plan to do any real, loaded touring and/or use panniers. A cyclocross bike is great for the uses and conditions you describe unless you plan to carry heavy loads in panniers. Most cross bikes do not have chain stays long enough for panniers or geometry and tubing designed to carry heavy loads. I have a cross and touring bikes. The touring bike is perfectly capable on dirt/gravel roads and trails with the right tires, but is not as lively as the cross bike. However, the touring is much more capable when it comes to carrying loads. My heels striked the rear panniers when I tried to use them on my cross bike.

While you're checking out models, take a look at the Soma Saga, which is a touring bike but does great on unpaved roads and trails. It is available in disc and canti-brake versions and very reasonably priced. I posted photos of my Soma Saga and Ritchey Cross bikes for comparison.

Were I looking for a cross bike, I would look at these: Masi Bikes - Cyclocross - CX Comp

That is pretty sweet, and it seems a really good value; except those gold rims are ugly

You'll want a bike that takes fenders.

See this other thread, The Cross or Gravel Bike?

There's some overlap in function, but a cross bike is more racing oriented, and a gravel bike is more long distance and rough road oriented. A touring bike would tend to have really low gears and fittings on the fork to mount a low rider front rack. The touring bike will be best of the three with heavy loads.

both are nice looking bikes. I Like the Saga's style! I ride a cyclocross and sometimes I wish I had a little more relaxed riding position like the touring bike would give.

i like my cross check. it's awesome. that said, i'm not sure how awesome it would be from manhattan to long island, it's more for light touring, and i use it as a commuter from BK to manhattan and would use it for long rides too (30 mi). and the pothole situation is out of control. thicker tires would help you with that but add some rolling resistance. i think it would be worth it for 700 x 28-35mm tires.

i also would think a serious touring bike would suit your needs better, but i don't have so i don't really know. so yeah, it depends on what you really want. good luck finding something!

also i have had a road bike in the past and it suited my needs perfectly. and for fenders? SKS raceblades. i had them on both the road bike and have them now on my current commuter and i don't have the wet problems i had before, they keep my relatively dry, just some random mud splats around my calves and ankles, not too much. and they weigh hardly anything.

My Surly Ogre is my "do everything, go everywhere" bike. It's my commuter, tourer, explorer, hauling bike and I love it! I have a flat-bar sport-tourer and a fully-suspended mountain bike, but I have to find excuses to ride them over the Ogre.

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A lot of helpful suggestions, thank you guys! I'm going to spend the latter half of Wednesday going from shop to shop testing out some of these bikes and getting a feel for them.

One thing to keep in mind about the trend in most mainstream cyclocross bikes which is often overlooked in these threads... They have a high bottom bracket.

The high bottom bracket is detrimental to just about every aspect of bike handling, except for pedaling out of tough/muddy corners. This is not something most commuters will ever face, nor is it something you will come across on longer road rides/tours... It pretty much only applies to people who will actually race CX events. However what you will come across are times when that high BB affects your stability while handling. My nice-ish, racy TCX is amazing in every way. I love the fit. The steering feels both stable yet quick. I easily fit a rear rack on it. etc... But give me a fast descent and I definitely feel too high. Throw on the rear rack and a loaded up pannier and you feel it even more...

Touring bikes usually go the opposite way, with even lower bottom brackets than usual. And that can lead to surprisingly amazing handling. Give me a good unladen cyclocross bike with the same tires as an unladen touring bike (both of "average" geometries for their function) and I have no doubt the Touring bike will give me more confidence on rough single track, fast descents, mixed terrain, etc...

Luckily Gravel grinders don't generally have that issue, either, and have become quite popular, while having all the other standard benefits of a CX bike.

I love my bike so much, however, that I'm strongly contemplating throwing some 27.5" wheels on there with some 650x43 slicks for road/mixed riding. Which should bring that BB down to nearly road bike levels. And that opens up enough clearance to where I can easily fit a common 27.5x2" or so MTB tire for off roading if I wanted.

Aaaaaaaaah, the plight of us students...I was in the same boat until exactly a week ago now, when I got my Fuji Touring; would do all day rides every now and then on my Trek Allant (a gift from someone when all we dreamed of was biking 'round town), and the 7-8+ hours I'd spend would only amount to ~60miles! :cry: Definitely relating to the feeling like a kite in headwinds.

Though I don't have any direct experience with cyclocross bikes (I wish I did...or rather, I wish I had the budget to), light touring bikes do well enough for me (I've jumped up ~6mph in normal conditions, ~10mph on downhills, and ~5mph in headwinds since switching to my Fuji Touring), but I can imagine how the cyclocross bikes would give you even more of an advantage and a fun ride, especially if you don't intend on loading up your luggage.

This was my first thought as well.

Touring bikes have "slower" handling which may not be best for negotiating "crap pavement".

What do you think from your test rides..?

they can have similar types of wheels .. wider 700c tires ..

Go too high end on CX & no rack mounts are fitted , because you dont haul luggage around a Race Course ..