Can you use a cyclocross bike as a gravel bike?! Sure! In this short video, JOM of the Gravel Cyclist crew discusses his cyclocross bike setup as used at events such as Gravel Worlds, Crusher in the Tushar, Almanzo 100 and Paris to Ancaster – Real World Experiences – not conjecture. You can also ride around just for fun too! In gravel, there are no rules!
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I did my first Pisgah monstercross on my Ritchey swisscross. I squeezed some 38mm tires in the frame with 32 psi and did fine. Climbed great, a little twitchy on the downhills. The larger tires actually slows down the steering a little bit, downside like you pointed out, it’s tough to get the wheel out without deflating the tire.
Nice one Don, Pisgah is a race that I always run bigger tyres at, so major kudos for finishing it on a Swiss Cross – killer bike BTW.
My first monster bike was a green all steel 1990 Trek touring bike with some kinda thick
touring tire-I don’t even remember. It weighed 30 lbs. It was a tank. It somehow
got nicknamed “The Panzer”. It rode like a tired Ford Continental but it was better
than my 35 lb all steel mountain bike. “You need a real cyclo-cross bike K-Dogg – they
said with a grin as they shamed me time after time by leaving me in the dark all alone.
I don’t miss it…my “friends” say they do.
K-Dogg
K Dogg
“Friends” in cycling can be cruel, I found that out years ago when I showed up for bunch road ride on a highly modified drop bar Raleigh 20. ” You’re not riding that spastic bike, are you?” and “clown bike”, but after I drove the pace on the front and led the Sprint out….they breathlessly conceded defeat….
Hey JOM – thanks. Love my Ritchey Swiss Cross Canti for gravel. I use the Paul’s Minimoto linear pull (V-brake) brakes that are designed to work with road brake shifters. The Minimotos work very well and improve both the braking power and modulation compared to standard canti’s. I’ll admit that I’m not a disc brake expert; but I think the real advantage of disc wheel sets is that they permit the use of much wider tires; and on some modern gravel bikes- even different size wheels – 650B or 700C. The trade off is that when you compare the weight of rotors and disc calipers, thru axels, heavier disc forks and beefed up disc frames, to simple canti’s or Minimotos on a Canti frameset, you are giving up about a pound or so of weight. That’s the reason that some prod XC racers still prefer canti’s to discs in dry conditions.