chas58

It depends what you mean by competitive. Certainly not in CAT1-2. But CX often is more about having fun on whatever you are riding, rather than being like a road bike race.

Some mis-information here from people who read a lot but don’t ride CX.

CX bikes used to be the all around bike. Now Gravel is in fashion (for good reason I would say). This has allowed CX bikes to get more focused and racy – so there is no longer a need for a CX bike with fender and rack mounts, nor as much a need for a non race CX bike. At the same time, they have adopted a lot from gravel racing. CX bikes have gone through a lot of changes recently.

You can of course use a gravel bike for CX, but they are going to be crap (in comparison) in the tight hairpin turns, in rapid acceleration, in climbing, and of course there pedal strike and sloppy steering. Then again, CX is casual fun, run what ya brung – so we have people ride just about anything. My favorite was a 50 year old Schwinn Tandem. Worked well when you team mates are handing you whiskey shots on ever lap. ;-)

You can have fun on CX on anything. If you want to podium, a good CX bike is best – although I’ve seen people podium on a XC hard tail (granted, it was probably a $5000 bike, but still).

Geometry wise, a CX bike compared to gravel will be a lot more agile because of:
Shorter chain stay
Steeper head tube angle
Higher bottom bracket
More aero position (Lower stack/head-tube height)
Cross bikes have changed very fast lately with the influence of Gravel, cross bikes have similar tire clearance (CX calls it “mud clearance”), can be even more cush in the rear, although the front tends to be stiff for very precise steering. Some of them even have a longer top tube with shorter stem from mountain biking. My CX bike from 5 years ago is much, much different than one made in the last couple of years.

UCI rules do not limit the tire width For CX races for anyone I know. But then again, we are not competing at a national level. CX is casual fun. We CX with mountain bike tires if we want.

Yep, there are still plenty of CX bikes out there.
+1 on AL Canyon Inflite

P.S. “Since the gravel category has literally exploded in popularity” LOL – my daughter literally uses the word literal wrong every day. I mean, she literally told me that she literally died at work yesterday, she was so bored.