Next Bike — What Do I Want?

[jrenaut]

Cross bikes are great. My Bianchi Volpe is more commuter than cross, I think – I doubt you’ll see a lot of people racing a heavyish steel bike, but it’s very popular with commuters. It came with 700X32 knobby tires that I haven’t used much, but would be fine on gravel and whatnot.

[hozn]

I love my cross bike. It is also my commuter; I have a wheelset for cross and a wheelset for road and just switch them out (disc brakes with identical hubs makes that really easy). In the winter I run fenders since it is too wet for trail anyway. If you don’t want to get into more serious mountain biking, then a cross bike will serve you really well around here. I ride my cross bike in Lake Fairfax Park, and while it can be a bit sketchy hopping logs on a less upright geometry bike (compared to MTB), you can certainly ride local singletrack. That said, riding a mountain bike on technical trails is definitely more enjoyable — more confident, less jarring, better braking.

If you do get a cross bike, I strongly recommend disc brakes. I wish the crosscheck came with disc; that would make it an easy recommendation. I like my Habanero (ti) frame a lot, but building up a bike isn’t very cost-effective, even with eBay grouppo deals. It does seem like there are a number of good steel — or carbon — disc CX bike options, though.

[cephas]

@eminva 48385 wrote:

Would we be crazy to not even have one MTB in the house? Do people do that?

Back in grad school, when I first started becoming a commuter cyclist, I rode a mtb. After road bikes flew past a few times, I knew I wanted to ride a road bike when I grew up. First I had one from the ’60’s, now from the ’80’s. The mtb made it to dirty trails once, and otherwise served me well on the jungle roads of NYC, but it gave up its spirit somewhere along the way, and I’ve never wanted one again. A cross bike however…. A recently ex-coworker rode the Kona Jake, and by all reports he was a faithful steed.

[bluerider]

I love my Blue Norcross EX cross bike. Carbon frame, light, stiff, fast. I want to go Hozn’s route and get a separate set of wheels for road riding.

[KayakCyndi]

I think you’ll find that most people around here love their cross bikes. You know I’m loving the my Viaje. I doubt you need a “real” mountain bike unless you plan on “real” mountain biking. Cross, I think, would be fine for the CCT (which by do you have any interest in doing this).

Knowing what your main ride is though, definitely think about what you would want to ride in snow/ice. Make sure the bike can take fenders with big (perhaps studded) tires. The “racier” cross bikes might not be able to do that.

Oh, and if you want to try my Viaje just let me know.

[bluerider]

@KayakCyndi 48408 wrote:

I think you’ll find that most people around here love their cross bikes. You know I’m loving the my Viaje. I doubt you need a “real” mountain bike unless you plan on “real” mountain biking. Cross, I think, would be fine for the CCT (which by do you have any interest in doing this).

Knowing what your main ride is though, definitely think about what you would want to ride in snow/ice. Make sure the bike can take fenders with big (perhaps studded) tires. The “racier” cross bikes might not be able to do that.

Oh, and if you want to try my Viaje just let me know.

She makes a good point. While I love the carbon cross bike it has no mounts for fenders, racks, etc. Its purely for day trips and speed. I have learned to travel lightly.

[jabberwocky]

@eminva 48385 wrote:

And, you can ride the CCT on a cross bike, right?

You can. How pleasant it is varies depending on where on the CCT you’re riding. The southern parts are mostly paved or wide gravel, which is fine on a cross bike. Much of the northern part (north of Fairfax) is actual singletrack, which is doable on a cross bike but far from pleasant IMO. I’ve done it and made it through, but its much more fun on an actual mountainbike.

My question is do you actually enjoy mountain biking? If you do, a mountainbike makes sense. If you only ride trail when you have to and just want something for the occasional gravel/light off road ride, a cross bike makes more sense.

[GuyContinental]

@eminva 48385 wrote:

Would we be crazy to not even have one MTB in the house? Do people do that?

And, you can ride the CCT on a cross bike, right?

Thanks.

Liz

I’ll echo what Hozn said (I attempt to keep up with him on my CX in LFP often well before dawn) and add that there isn’t a single commonly-ridden MTB trail in the immediate DC area that can’t be ridden well on a CX. There might be times where a MTB would make it easier or more comfortable but you *can* get anywhere on a CX (not saying that you won’t sometimes walk). For generic use as well as the C&O or CCT the speed of a CX will make up for it’s handling and braking shortcomings.

I love MTB and would without thought classify myself as a MTB’er, yet in 2012 I rode ~4600 miles… all of 52 of it on a SS MTB (pretty much all racing), 38 on my FS MTB and 1700 on the CX (probably 1000 on CX tires).

Also, as others have said, keeping two sets of wheels/tires for the CX makes it super easy to swap out.

[hozn]

@KayakCyndi 48408 wrote:

I think you’ll find that most people around here love their cross bikes. You know I’m loving the my Viaje. I doubt you need a “real” mountain bike unless you plan on “real” mountain biking. Cross, I think, would be fine for the CCT (which by do you have any interest in doing this).

The Viaje looks like a really cool bike. At first I was confusing the Viaje with the Vaya (http://salsacycles.com/bikes/vaya), which is another great option — though they bill it more as a touring bike than a cyclocross bike (it has fender mounts, though, unlike the Warbird). I suspect it would work fine for offroad riding too; it definitely can take large-volume tires, has disc brakes, and generally looks pretty stout.

I would also give a vote for Sram components when it’s an option. I put (new in 2011) Shimano 105 on my bike, but I have to say that my Sram (Rival) drivetrain has so much cleaner/crisper rear shifts and has required far less fiddling to get it working right. (I had similar experience moving from Shimano to Sram on my geared mountain bike.) I chalk it up to the 1:1 cable pull they use for the rear derailleur. So while I wouldn’t rule out any bike that had Shimano components, I would add a +1 to the “pro” column for ‘cross bikes that came with a Sram build.

[jabberwocky]

@GuyContinental 48413 wrote:

I’ll echo what Hozn said (I attempt to keep up with him on my CX in LFP often well before dawn) and add that there isn’t a single commonly-ridden MTB trail in the immediate DC area that can’t be ridden well on a CX.

Probably true of some of the easier stuff, but I wouldn’t take a CX bike on any of the intermediate trail in the area, and wouldn’t even consider it on the more advanced stuff. Most of wakefield would be alright, for example (though the rocky stuff on phase 4 would suck on a cross bike). I wouldn’t ride Accotink on a cross bike though.

To me, its a question of enjoyment. Sure, you can ride a CX bike on singletrack. I’ve done it many times. Its not very fun though. The geometry is unpleasant on actual trail, the ride is harsh, drop bars suck off road, ground clearance is bad, cross tires lack traction on steep climbs/descents and cornering etc.

[Dickie]

I just bought a cross bike at the end of 2012 with the explicit idea of wanting a more rugged and yet comfortable bike for winter riding. Before I decided on the cross bike I tried a number of MTN bikes and hybrids but never felt right with flat bars. I have always ridden drops and have no intention of doing any MTN riding so a cross bike made sense. Next I wanted to find a bike that would accept fenders, racks, a wide selection of tires, and would fit my budget which was no more than $1200.00. After much searching I decided on a 2012 Cannondale Caadx6 and have loved it. I am actually riding it most of the time now and find reasons to ride it more than my road bike (eg. looks like rain, back-pack is heavy today, I’m a wuss, etc). My only complaint if I had one is something Hozn mentioned. I couldn’t afford to go one step up and get disk brakes, instead I have the dreaded cantilevers, but they suffice for now and the bike is so well equipped I can always upgrade later.

Meet Ollie

[KayakCyndi]

@Dickie 48417 wrote:

I couldn’t afford to go one step up and get disk brakes, instead I have the dreaded cantilevers, but they suffice for now and the bike is so well equipped I can always upgrade later.

Mmmm … disk brakes. That was a requirement for me. My Masi has canti’s and those things never seemed to stop. You can get mini-v’s now for cross bikes which work great when set up right but nothing beats disk in my opinion. It will probably all boil down to how much you want to spend.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2656[/ATTACH]

[KelOnWheels]

http://allcitycycles.com/bikes/macho_man_disc

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2657[/ATTACH]

You need one of these. I think a 49cm would be an excellent size for me… um… I mean you!

[DismalScientist]

BikeSnob says that fixies are out in London and the next big thing is … Touring Bikes: http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2013/04/cycling-for-entertainment-purposes-only.html

I’ve ridden my touring bike on the C&O and easier parts of the CCT with no problems. You can run 28s for normal street riding or 35s or so for trails (not that I actually switched out the 28s). The major difference between cross and touring is likely to be geometry, with touring bikes being more relaxed and cross being more aggressive. One problem I have noticed on my latest touring bike is that the bottom bracket is too low for 175mm cranks and I bottom out easily. Cross bikes will have higher bottom brackets. Whether you want relaxed or aggressive geometry is a matter purely of your riding style and preference.

As for bike suggestions, if looking for standard touring bikes with canti brakes, I personally would go to nashbar or bikedirect and avoid the LBS premium. Unfortunately, the discount internet dealers don’t offer touring bikes with disc brakes, but I’m sure Bilsko and others would recommend a Disk Trucker.

For cross bikes, the deal that Shawn pointed out on the Fuji at Performance/Fairfax looks really sweet even though the frame does not have rack and fender mounts.

[thucydides]

I recently replaced my old commuter bike with a Specialized TriCross. It’s perfect for commuting (e.g., has plenty of braze-ons for fenders, rack, etc). Mine is aluminum, disk brakes, okayish components (SRAM apex). Aside from commuting I’ve taken it lots on the C&O and parts of the CCT. Personally I wouldn’t ride it on the CCT once you start getting north of Lake Fairfax, nor would I take it on dedicated mtb trails like Fountainhead and parts of Wakefield. OTOH I would not want to spend much time on a mtb on the C&O and certainly not as a commuter. So it’s a tradeoff type deal. (Isn’t it always?)

[Author]

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