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It may seem like road and mountain bikes rule the cycling scene, but between these extreme classes of bikes, you’ll find numerous fields that overlap between on-road and off-road riding. The significant multi-terrain bikes include gravel, cyclocross, and touring.
All of such bikes employs road-style sturdy and heavy-duty frames made from the finest quality materials, a wider gear range, and with tires ranging from 32mm to 50mm thick. Cyclocross racing has been around since the turn of the last century and has become a well-established sport.
But according to bike makers, it keeps on evolving, especially over the last few years with the introduction of advanced carbon fiber construction, the expansion of disc brakes, and the preference for tubeless tires.
You can easily convert your awesome CX bike for different uses like training, commuting, or gravel riding, with a substitution from cyclocross tires to adequate road or gravel tires.
We have devised this guide to help you learn the proper way to modify a cyclocross bike for touring. You can use these instructions to make considerations for turning your cyclocross bike into a reasonable touring bike.
These Are Some Of The Most Popular And Preferred Cyclocross Bikes:
![EUROBIKE 29" Mountain Bike, 21-Speed, Adult Cyclocross City Bike, Mountain Bike with Non-Slip Dual Disc Brakes, Men's and Women's [US in Stock] (Orange)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51cWnKuqL9L._SL160_.jpg)
What is a Cyclocross Bike?
Cyclocross bikes are best for racing on specialized courses, designed specifically for the sport. These bikes allow riders to participate in different types of bike racing disciplines with better chances of winning. The CX bikes are ideal for dirt tracks, sandy areas, rocky trails, and snowy terrains.
Cyclocross is a type of racing that includes using a drop bar handle bike on an off-road course, like a park, field, or similar areas. These off-road domains might contain features, like mud, sandpits, barriers, and slopes too steep to ride, compelling riders to run. An international-grade standard course must be 2.5km to 3.5km long. A cyclocross race is usually for an hour and has one lap, while the other racing styles are relatively shorter.
A cyclocross frame is built specifically for racing. Its design serves its objective of going fast and being able to be carried when the terrain requires it.
What is a Touring Bike?
A touring-specific bike is utterly designed for simple road riding. Here are the details that give a touring bike its characteristics and versatility:
Load-carrying Ability
One of the main features of touring bikes is they can carry additional loads without too much hassle.
Riding Position
Touring bikes are designed for a more upright position than most road bikes. A specialized bike for touring allows a rider to look around the scenery at great speed.
Frame Material
Touring bike frames are made of different materials. Even though carbon fiber is rare and steel is prominent because of tradition and its exceptional ride.
Tires
The adventure bike tyres are wide to offer a load-carrying ability and a comfortable ride. The wide tires can help move through difficult terrains like dirt roads and steep slopes
Brakes
You can get either cantilever or cable disc brakes on a touring bike. Side-pull brakes are rare as they don’t have the required extent to offer space for fat tires.
Cyclocross Bike for Touring
The features of cyclocross bikes make it obvious that they possess all the aspects that a cyclist may need for a pleasant tour. That’s why the popularity of this bike is improving gradually.
And, luckily you can transform your best preferred Cyclocross racing bike into a heavy-duty, durable, and weight-bearing touring bike. There are many features of a high-performance CX bike, making it an ideal option ideal for touring.
Cyclocross bikes are considered the most adaptable and practical bicycles on the market. From the onset of this sport, cyclocross has been attaining popularity because of its comprehensive approach and the desire for cyclists to do something productive yet high on the fun.
The increasing demand for the sport also increased the sales of Cyclocross bikes and augmented curiosity about their feasibility. Many cyclocross bikes are preferred by riders who have discovered their multi-use potential.
Cyclocross bicycles are similar to road racing bicycles. They are lightweight, with relatively narrow tires and drop handlebars. These bikes are discriminated based on their higher tire clearances, cantilever brakes or disc brakes, and additional upright riding position. They are also somewhat similar to mountain bicycles because of their features, such as they have knobby tires and disc brakes used for better traction.
Touring bikes need to be lightweight, as riders may have to carry them to overcome obstacles or steep slopes that are hard to climb in the saddle. It’s normal for people to struggle to get through a muddy slope or dirt roads with bicycles on their shoulders while racing or touring, although such sections are generally a small fraction of the total distance.
The bike geometry charts of cyclocross bike frames consider it strong enough to handle the requirements for adventure riding. Except for chainstay length, the remaining angles and measurements will be overlooked. Racks and panniers are available to clear your heels on cyclocross frames, regardless of the size of your feet.
Frame construction is a rather significant factor, especially if you are intending to use panniers for both the front and rear of your bike. With more than 10kg up front, a stiff frame is crucial. You can encounter speed wobbles with frames that are not built to handle loads or steep roads.
Issues To Deal With When Using Cyclocross for Touring
Cyclocross bicycles have been prospering promptly in popularity over the past few years, so their availability and selection are tough. Their geometry lies between that of a touring bike and a road bike.
However, making a single bike work well for two different disciplines, like quick yet light road riding and loaded touring, you’re sure to encounter a few issues that require tweaking.
Here are some aspects to keep in mind:
Heel Clearance
Cyclocross bikes have broader chainstays than road bikes, making them ideal for running wider tires and offering enough space for fenders. As compared to touring bikes these bike possess smaller chainstays so adequate heel clearance for fenders can disturb the panniers. This issue can be dealt with by using smaller front panniers on the rear.
Gearing
Some cyclocross bikes come with a triple crankset, but normally they have compact double cranksets. Based on your priorities, a compact double may not provide a narrow gear range or low gearing, an upgrade to a triple would help in such cases.
Also, pay attention to the rear derailleur. Using a long-cage derailleur to adjust a wider-range gearing isn’t a bad idea.
Bottom Bracket Height
Traditionally, cyclocross race bikes possess a high bottom bracket drop, which can lightly elevate the center of gravity.
Modern cyclocross bikes feature a lower bottom bracket height, more in line with road bikes, so this may be an issue that’s moving away.
Wheelset
Since cyclocross bikes represent a certain sport and riding style, they come with a sturdy bike wheelset that may or may not be suitable for an adventure bike.
If you prefer fast-paced road riding in addition to touring, you can use a stock wheelset for freestyle riding and a second wheelset for touring. The wheel size is another factor to consider while using your CX bike for touring.
Rack Eyelets
As cyclocross bicycles are more specialized, you’ll find racing bike features that omit fender, rack, mudguard, or fork eyelets. At the beginner level, however, you can discover bikes with rear racks and mudguard eyelets.
Dealing with these issues involves some cost, but a cyclocross bike is still a better, more reasonable possibility than obtaining two specialized bikes.
Pannier Rack
One of the basic requirements for touring is the proficiency to carry all your heavy load on a bike. That means the requirement for at least a rear adjustable pannier rack. Rack mounts will help you fit a pannier rack to your standard cyclocross bike. It will take weights up to 25 kg based on the specification and build quality of the rack for using a cyclocross bike for touring.
Cyclocross Bikes Versus Gravel Bikes – What’s the Difference?
The relatively current introduction of gravel bikes into the cycling world has resulted in complications among many cyclists.
Bicycles of such types are rather similar and it’s hard to tell them apart. However, several substantial differences set cyclocross and gravel bikes.
The most evident difference between cyclocross and modern gravel bikes is the reduced tire clearance you have on a cyclocross bike. The UCI restrictions allow the cyclocross tires to be only a maximum of 33mm, reducing the amount of clearance and the bike’s versatility.
Conclusions
If you’re traveling with light loads through a terrain, it will be ideal to use a cyclocross bike. They are 30% lighter as compared to a standard touring bike and work ideally for various cycling domains, like freestyling, road riding, and racing. Cyclocross bikes are usually considered jack-of-all-trades or all-road bike.
Hopefully, after reading this article, you will be aware of whether Cyclocross Bikes are good for Touring or not. You can also learn the comparison between Cyclocross and Touring bikes, the main objective of these two bikes, and also many details regarding CX and Touring.
