So a cyclocross is a road bike with knobby tires? Or are there more differences I'm missing?
Frame geometry is also a bit different, not aggressively designed for pure speed. A lot of the new bikes are starting to have features like disc brakes. They are also geared differently, more geared for low speeds and climbing tough terrain.
Cyclocross focuses on short 2-3.5KM races in short laps (1 hour) and goes over a lot of different terrain, a lot of it unride-able so you have to carry your bike.
Cyclocross focuses on short 2-3.5KM races in short laps (1 hour) and goes over a lot of different terrain, a lot of it unride-able so you have to carry your bike.
Or bring your mountain bike
You might have trouble with cyclocross tires on a road bike due to brake clearance, but check it out. Road bikes are starting to come with disc brakes now too.
The city isn't the best place to learn how to ride a road bike, it is more in it's element to go out to a quiet (clean/free of gravel) country road and put it through it's paces. Loosen up the pedals so that it doesn't take as much to get your foot in/out (unless you have egg-beaters, which I have never liked).
At the end of the day though, there aren't many spots in Calgary that are great for riding on a road bike in my experiences, the pathways are too congested and the roads are often times in a state of disrepair that a good portion of time is spent dodging potholes. That being said when you wake up early on a Sunday morning and are the only person on a new stretch of road going by at 45 km an hour, those things are quickly forgotten.
I always suggest that for commuters to look into the touring bikes as well, thicker tires, meant to handle a couple panniers on the back to bring clothing and whatnot back and forth, plus it has a less aggressive frame which is often what people are looking for.
I'm regretting buying a $2000 road bike. I think I should have gotten a cyclocross bike instead. As a beginner I find it's tough keeping the road bike steady and the ultra-stiff ride, super thin wheels, super stiff tires, etc. make me afraid of getting off the path into grass or going off a curb, etc. I've wiped out on my road bike several times already. A lot of it was due to getting wobbly once speed goes down and trying to squeeze into tighter lanes or going around people. Some of it due to not being able to unclip in time and just falling over on my side.
Exactly why I looked into Cyclocross. Tested out a bike with thin tires at first and found it really awkward and uncomfortable. I have a whole new respect for road bikers. The cyclocross definitely is the best of both worlds and feels like it will be a good transition from mountain biking to road.
Mean Mr Mustard's post is great. I do ride my road bike for commuting at times, but the city's streets are really nasty for the most part. Paths aren't much better. I'm running a Kona Jake cross bike with fenders and some Schwalbe Marathon tires.
If you want cyclo cross without the drop bars, check out the Cannondale Bad Boy I posted about earlier in the thread. It's been great, 700c 28c tires are a good blend for speed / durability. Discs. The 50mm travel fork with lockout has also been great for light offloading and curb bashing (and is unique across all Cyclocross/urban bike manufacturers I believe).
Only downside - as an urban bike the position is more upright than I'd like. I got an offset seatpost to help. Would have added a longer stem too but it has the cool integrated headlight....
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i only have one bike a mountain bike and I ride that bad boy to and from work on a semi-regular basis.
I'd love to get a commuter rig that is lighter and has better gearing; however, it would be a hard case to make with teh wife, so I'll just focus on upgrading my true love......
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HackandLube, did you buy a road bike expressly for commuting, pathway riding?
No, I bought it to participate in the Ride to Conquer Cancer later this summer (200KM highway charity race).
For that purpose, I guess it makes sense but I've found little utility for it otherwise. Like Mr. Mustard said, the city itself is not that friendly. The roads are pot-holled and the cutbacks to street sweeping means that all the bike lanes or bike spaces on the side of roads are full of gravel (which I have wiped out on already). The bike paths are congested and still suffering flood damage, debris, mud, etc.
Maybe I can get to a good enough level, I can pedal at road speeds on medium traffic streets but I'm still avoiding traffic when possible but the piles of gravel on the side of every road where bikers can fit is a nightmare and I wish the city would clean it up properly.
Last edited by Hack&Lube; 05-12-2014 at 02:18 PM.
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I left home early today and took Ctr Street. Looked like the curb land had been bombed. Pull of holes, dips, etc. It would have eaten my road bike alive. This winter really beat the roads to hell. That and the lack of timely street cleaning have been frustrating this year.
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No, I bought it to participate in the Ride to Conquer Cancer later this summer (200KM highway charity race).
For that purpose, I guess it makes sense but I've found little utility for it otherwise. Like Mr. Mustard said, the city itself is not that friendly. The roads are pot-holled and the cutbacks to street sweeping means that all the bike lanes or bike spaces on the side of roads are full of gravel (which I have wiped out on already). The bike paths are congested and still suffering flood damage, debris, mud, etc.
Maybe I can get to a good enough level, I can pedal at road speeds on medium traffic streets but I'm still avoiding traffic when possible but the piles of gravel on the side of every road where bikers can fit is a nightmare and I wish the city would clean it up properly.
I Just went into a bike shop to buy a cyclocross for the same Ride. She talked me out of it to a much cheaper hybrid. She said too many people overspend on bikes for this one long ride and never truly utilize the bike for its worth. I did 83k Saturday on it and I couldn't have been happier. A big Kudos to that bike shop.
I also have reversible pedals so I can switch whenever I don't need to be clipped in.
I Just went into a bike shop to buy a cyclocross for the same Ride. She talked me out of it to a much cheaper hybrid. She said too many people overspend on bikes for this one long ride and never truly utilize the bike for its worth. I did 83k Saturday on it and I couldn't have been happier. A big Kudos to that bike shop.
I also have reversible pedals so I can switch whenever I don't need to be clipped in.
Those pedals are disastrously slippery. Take hockey tape and fill the flat side surfaces completely. Helped me a great deal.
For drivers, the idea of cyclists rolling through an intersection without fully stopping might sound dangerous — but because of their slower speed and wider field of vision (compared to cars), cyclists are generally able to assess whether there's oncoming traffic and make the right decision. Even law-abiding urban bikers already do this all the time: because of the worry that cars might not see a bike, cyclists habitually scan for oncoming traffic even at intersections where they don't have a stop sign so they can brake at the last second just in case.
There are even a few reasons why the Idaho stop might even make the roads safer than the status quo. In many cities, the low-traffic routes that are safer for bikes are the kinds of roads with many stop signs. Currently, some cyclists avoid these routes and take faster, higher-traffic streets. If the Idaho stop were legalized, it'd get cyclists off these faster streets and funnel the bikes on to safer, slower roads.
The Idaho stop, if legalized and widely adopted, would also make bikes more predictable. Currently, when a bike and a car both pull up to a four-way stop, an awkward dance often ensues. Even when cars get there first, drivers often try to give bikers the right-of-way, perhaps because they think the cyclist is going to ride through anyway.
If the cyclist logically waits, both parties end up sitting there, urging the other to go on. In the opposite (and rarer) scenario, both people assume the other will wait, leading to a totally unnecessary accident.
An Idaho stop would put an end to this madness: the first vehicle to come to the intersection always has the right of way, giving bikers a rule they'd actually follow, making them more predictable for drivers.
If all this sounds far-fetched to you, look at the data. Public health researcher Jason Meggs found that after Idaho started allowing bikers to do this in 1982, injuries resulting from bicycle accidents dropped. When he compared recent census data from Boise to Bakersfield and Sacramento, California — relatively similar-sized cities with comparable percentages of bikers, topographies, precipitation patterns, and street layouts — he found that Sacramento had 30.5 percent more accidents per bike commuter and Bakersfield had 150 percent more.
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