a.brasington
Likes Bikes
I'm looking at building another bike for the odd group road ride and for commuting to uni a few times a week, and need some thoughts from people.
I currently have an XC 29er hardtail race machine for most of my club races, adventure racing, and mtb orienteering, and I'm tossing up between the next bike being either a CX or full on roadie.
Whatever option I choose, it will be a ground-up custom build (potentially going to have a shot at wheel building this time around).
Points for CX
- With the price point I have planned for the build, CX bikes look totally badass.
- The last road bike I had used for training and commutes, I would always have to stop myself from being too 'playful' with the bike. On a CX bike, I can do things like bunny hop up gutters or over speed bumps for example (Can I?).
- Wet weather commutes would be a lot easier.
- There are hundreds of KMs of nice smooth fire-trail routes near my house. It might be nice to mix it up between the XC bike and the CX bike every so often.
Points for Roadie
- The commute to uni is on great roads, a lot of wide-shoulder highway riding, with not too much debris on the roads.
- I won't have massive issues keeping up with my training buddy, who rides a fully fledged road bike on our 'road days'.
- The overall build will be cheaper, as I plan on building part by part, and the availability of the road components (especially when wheel building) will be much greater.
A few last noteworthy points
- I don't carry enough stuff on commutes to warrant pannier racks.
- I don't plan on getting involved in either CX or road racing. XC Mtbing and Adventure racing is enough for me.
- I don't want to play around with swapping tires or wheels around if I went with the CX bike.
- I'm not a fan of a 'relaxed' geometry. I like a normal road geometry, or a XC race geometry.
My current thoughts are that if I can find a nice 'normal road' geometry CX bike frame, that I can build up to be a similar weight and cost to a road bike, then I would definitely go the CX bike option simply for versatility. Problem is finding one with a nice geometry I guess? Anyone ridden one of the Chinese carbon CX frames and can let me know how they ride?
I currently have an XC 29er hardtail race machine for most of my club races, adventure racing, and mtb orienteering, and I'm tossing up between the next bike being either a CX or full on roadie.
Whatever option I choose, it will be a ground-up custom build (potentially going to have a shot at wheel building this time around).
Points for CX
- With the price point I have planned for the build, CX bikes look totally badass.
- The last road bike I had used for training and commutes, I would always have to stop myself from being too 'playful' with the bike. On a CX bike, I can do things like bunny hop up gutters or over speed bumps for example (Can I?).
- Wet weather commutes would be a lot easier.
- There are hundreds of KMs of nice smooth fire-trail routes near my house. It might be nice to mix it up between the XC bike and the CX bike every so often.
Points for Roadie
- The commute to uni is on great roads, a lot of wide-shoulder highway riding, with not too much debris on the roads.
- I won't have massive issues keeping up with my training buddy, who rides a fully fledged road bike on our 'road days'.
- The overall build will be cheaper, as I plan on building part by part, and the availability of the road components (especially when wheel building) will be much greater.
A few last noteworthy points
- I don't carry enough stuff on commutes to warrant pannier racks.
- I don't plan on getting involved in either CX or road racing. XC Mtbing and Adventure racing is enough for me.
- I don't want to play around with swapping tires or wheels around if I went with the CX bike.
- I'm not a fan of a 'relaxed' geometry. I like a normal road geometry, or a XC race geometry.
My current thoughts are that if I can find a nice 'normal road' geometry CX bike frame, that I can build up to be a similar weight and cost to a road bike, then I would definitely go the CX bike option simply for versatility. Problem is finding one with a nice geometry I guess? Anyone ridden one of the Chinese carbon CX frames and can let me know how they ride?
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