I’ve been looking at the Salsa Cutthroat this week. Carbon bike aimed at continental divide trail bike packing. I’m thinking that this could work good for cross, gravel and bike packing … and maybe some road riding too … Although it could be average at all of these, and not actually good at any. Need a demo bike.
As I’m not racing on the road, I just think that there’s not real reason to ride a bike that only takes 26 mm tires (SL2 Tarmac), but it’s tough to know what to change to, and it’s possible that the gravel/cross/bikepacking bike could be terrible on the road …
Unless you are contending in state championship USAC races you can compete on an MTB. A lot of guys in our local race series do just that. As long as you have bar end plugs as @Nate_Pearson stated and you don’t have any bullhorns you can run flat bars.
I have a Kona Jake The Snake that I love! I can strip it down, swap wheels and race CX, then put cages and gadgets back on and do 100 mile gravel grinders in comfort with little/no adjustment. In the end, I’d say get the bike that feels and fits the best. You can change tires or wheels to suit what you’re planning that day. Unless you’re seriously racing CX, the gravel bike geometry may be more suited for the majority of your time on the bike.
Ive got a 2017 tcx slr 2 cycle cross with an extra wheel set. Ive used it for gravel, I used it as my road bike and Ive used it as endurance to ride 1600 km from Alberta to Ontario. I have gator skins on one set of rims and a 37 mm wide amazing touring tire that i used for gravel and the long trip. The touring tires have about 12000 km on them and looks new.
This thread has given me some reasons to think. With my hernia I can’t do CX until after surgury. I just bought a brand new specialized roubaix elite to take over a real road/endurance bike. I also have the tcx up for sale as I was going to replace it with a diverge e5 comp. I was looking at the diverge carbon comp but dont have the cash after the roubaix. Maybe I should just stay with the tcx as it owes me nothing with over 17000 km on it.
The main things I’d watch for is how much tyre clearance you have if you go for a CX bike, they’re getting better, but since technically you can only run 33mm tyres some CX race bikes are pretty tight. I’d want to be able to get at least 45s in. And if you go for a gravel bike watch out for really dropped top tubes, as that will make it a pain to shoulder the bike in a cross race.
@heypoolboy78 is spot on here, I also have a Major Jake, and the geometry is so versatile, I use the bike as a commuter, a cross racer, and a gravel bike. I even ride single track on it with 45s. Superb bicycle.
If you really do a. deep dive on the geometry of these bikes, you’ll see how really close they all are. With very few exceptions, they are pretty much at the equilibrium point for performance.
A really good Cross or Gravel bike is a super versatile ride.
I’ve been looking at the Superx as a possible gravel race and Cx option, but I’m struggling with the proprietary rear wheel dish. I guess the two major concerns would be not being able to share wheels with a road bike and the possibility of needing a wheel backup in a race and not being able to use anything but that specific Ai dish.
I don’t think the CAADX has that setup, but also doesn’t have as much where clearance. So many details to consider…
