Hybrid Vs Cyclocross

chilledBiker

After 10yrs with my trek 7.9Fx carbon I'm going to get a new bike. I do about 90% road & 10% offroad/woods/trails etc. I tend to cycle when the sun shines. I'm lookin for speed, comfort and versitility in a new bike. I'm a fan of the twist shifter gear change mechanism & have fully utilized the bullbars on my own bike, in fact, use these as handle grips for 50% of my cycling & 100% of my climbing. I rarely go more that 40 miles in anyone trip. If I'd any complaints about my old bike is that it is slow.
So now, I've seen that hybrids are now biased towards road as opposed to older jack of all trades which I've been used to, and conversly, I've suddenly discovered a road bike going down the road of the older style hybrid, =cyclocross. From what I see cyclocross is exactly right for my needs execpt for one major flaw, the handlebars & click shifters. Would it be feasilble / practical to put straight handlebars/twist shifters on a cyclecross bike.. Any thoughts anyone

blorg

Why do you not want drop bars? They give you more hand positions and you still have the top of the bars position equivalent to flat bars. Especially if you use bar ends a lot.

To be honest if you are 90% road, I would keep your current Trek for the trails etc. (presuming it is up to that) and get a road bike. Or even sell it and get an entry-level MTB.

A lot of the suitability of cross bikes for off-road is in the tyres (and having the associated clearances for them) - these same tyres are utterly painful on the road and you would not want to use them there.

A cross bike with cross tyres will be substantially slower on the road than your current Trek.

Lumen

A cross bike with straight handlebars is pretty much just a hybrid, apart from maybe a slightly more aggressive position.

IMO cross bikes are cool/fun precisely because they are a completely inappropriate tool for the job of going off-road. Putting flat bars on removes the craziness - you're just creating a really bad mountain bike.

Whatever you decide to get, don't start messing with it by switching components - it's a waste of money. You can probably get an off-the-shelf road-oriented hybrid ("flat bar road bike") that will take 35mm tyres. Or else get a cross bike and learn to love the drops.

chilledBiker

I was looking at the specialized tricross comp bike and it seems a nice alternative to the trek, it would be nice to be able to test ride some decent bikes but there doesn't seen to be any bike shops in Ireland which stocks very good hybrid or cyclocross bikes. I'm utterly at the mercy of web reviews and pictures. My own bike is still good but a real struggle on the open road & just ok on the trails. The riding position on it is just perfect & it weighs, well, very little. I love the control control via a handlebars, if I thought I could obtain the same control with the drop handlebars I'd jump at the cyclocross. I take the point about changing the bike though, it is a bit of a chance & could end up being a waste of money.
Cyclocross slow on the roads?? thats new from any review I have ever read, are your sure about that?

petethedrummer

chilledBiker wrote: »

I was looking at the specialized tricross comp bike and it seems a nice alternative to the trek, it would be nice to be able to test ride some decent bikes but there doesn't seen to be any bike shops in Ireland which stocks very good hybrid or cyclocross bikes.

http://www.cycleways.com/store/category/22/371/Cyclocross-Bikes/

Last time I was in they had 2 (if not 3) Cyclocross bikes.

Lumen

chilledBiker wrote: »

Cyclocross slow on the roads?? thats new from any review I have ever read, are your sure about that?

Only slow in the sense that you have a slightly higher position (shorter top tube) and fatter knobblier tyres.

Not a massive problem in isolation, or compared to a mountain bike. I did a few road miles on studded cross tyres in the winter, and it wasn't exactly fun, but at high pressure they weren't too bad. You just go slower.

Of course if you're going on a road spin you'd put proper road tyres on, right? It would also take some commitment to do a long road ride on on cross tyres in order to go off-road a bit.

As with most forms of cycling, it would be more pleasant with a support vehicle.

cloinsigh

Might be worth giving the lapierre range a look. I'm thinking of getting the lapierre RCR 500. Just posted a question about it a few minutes ago.
the seem to be a good all rounder

blorg

I have two bikes based on cross frames, so yes, I am sure! I am comparing to a road bike here. It is mostly in the tyres, but they are also heavier and more upright than a road bike. The tyres are painful compared to slicks though (they are after all designed for off road.)

One of them is the Specialized Tricross singlespeed and the geometry is certainly very relaxed compared to a road bike. It also weighs a ton- in comparison. There are other issues including sub-optimal braking compared to a road bike.

I honestly don't understand why you think a cross bike converted to take flat bars will be faster than your current carbon Trek. What is going to make it faster? Leave the stock tyres on and it will be a hell of a lot slower, even with drops. Converting to 700x25c slicks made a phenomenal difference. But it is still slower than a road bike!

Why do you find your current bike "a real struggle on the open road?"

cloinsigh- that Lapierre could be a good option for you but the OP already has a top-of-the-range-multi-thousand-euro hybrid!

Frankly you already have just about the best bike you could possibly get for unloaded fast road use that has flat bars. The only way you are going to go faster is by getting something (in roughly this order of importance) with drops, more agressive geometry, and lighter.

= A road bike.