1bluetrek

My wife just surprised me with a shiney new Giant TCX Advanced Pro 2 .
Does anyone use their cross bike on the road? Any advice on a good pedal for cross and road riding?

gamby

I'm a roadie who uses SPD pedals on all of my bikes. Thousands upon thousands of miles later, they still perform just fine for my needs.

Meanwhile, a huge percentage of crossers use SPDs, as well. Since you'll want mountainbike shoes for cross, SPDs get the vote here, too. Maybe use separate shoes for road and cross, as the cross shoes will get pretty nasty pretty quickly.

knobster

Lots of threads on here on this topic.

Here's a couple:
https://www.bikeforums.net/recreation...tween-2-a.html
https://www.bikeforums.net/recreation...oad-bikes.html

That's mainly what I use mine for. It's quick. I don't think I loose anything from a typical road bike on my cross bike.

I like Crank Brothers Candy pedals but my favorite is Speedplay Frog pedals. They are both mountain bike pedals but they are easy to get in and out of and have plenty of float. I rather like mountain bike type shoes since I like having the ability to walk around with ease and road bike shoes aren't designed for that.

bikemig 

I've been using my cross bike a lot for road riding using 32c folding tires and SPD pedals. I used to have both road and SPD pedals. Now I use SPD pedals on all my bikes. I really like time atac pedals. I love my cross bike since I can bomb down a gravel road and a paved road.

Caliper

Yup, SPD or any other popular cross pedals work just fine on the road. Consider the tires as well. If nothing else, you'll wear the nice mud-gripping tread of a CX tire out running a lot of paved miles. A smooth tread tire is what I'd look at using a CX bike on the road to save the CX tires for mud.

09box

+1 for SPD pedals. I've had two cross bikes in the past that had road tires on them and had no trouble keeping up with people.

Dream Cyclery

show off!!!

SlowJoeCrow

I ride my cross bike on the road all the time. The main thing is to get some slick tires instead of knobbies, although I have hung with the slower group on club rides while riding Hutchinson Bulldogs. For pedals, it's easier to run SPDs or similar rather than road pedals since they work better in the dirt and for walking around.
After that consider some different gearing, I run an 11-28 cassette instead of the original 12-27 on the road to get a little more climbing gear and a little more top speed. I have a second set of wheels which simplifies things since I keep knobbies and a 12-27 on one set and slicks and an 11-28 on the other.

1bluetrek

It was quite a day! The American Diabetes Association Seattle Tour de Cure presented me with a 2015 Mini Cooper Countryman to use for a month, and as we were all standing around checking it out, a buddy of mine from a Seattle area bike shop comes wheeling this bike across the car lot. Im like whats up??? He says Eric, there are 3 more bikes on the back of the van! My wife is like honey, go ride them all and pick the one you want. I already bought it! I was just a bit of shock lol...

1bluetrek

Thanks for all the input, I do have some SPDs and I bought some new Armadillo 30s for the road. With the carbon frame, they should smooth out the eastern Washington rough roads and chip seal nicely!

GeneO 

My commute on my cross is part road, and for pleasure when I don't feel like the trails I often ride on the road on the site where I work (very large site). I use SPD pedals - Shimano M540.

qclabrat

crazy, a pipe dream for me if my wife bought me a bike.....
cross bike are great for the road, buy a second set of rims mounted on thinner road tires and you be as fast as the other roadies on the street. Switch out to the CX tires and even ride single track. have fun

Alias530

Cyclocross bikes make decent road bikes, just get an extra wheelset with road tires if you care about average speed. It won't be as quick as a dedicated road bike either way (geometry, aero, etc) but it'll hold its own.

jaxgtr

I use a cross bike for a commuter on nice paved road with 25's

fietsbob

Nice comfy Slick 32's fit on the CX bike , they wouldn't have any clearance on the road bike .

TGT1

You really don't have to give up off road performance for road performance. Just look for a tire with a solid center stripe. (that doesn't mean that it wont have knobs, just that they overlap producing effectively a solid center stripe). A tire with an effective solid center stripe is going to have about the same rolling resistance as a skinny slick. they aren't easy to find though. Most CX tires have interrupted center knobs, high rolling resistance on pavement and they wear out really fast on pavement too.

I just came in from 56 miles, 8 of which was steep dirt power line access road with up and down at the limits of traction and 34X32 gearing. One foot unclipped and on the brakes all the way down the other side. When I got to the SGRT I drooped one entire club and a TT rider and was averaging around 18 mph on the flat. A kid that followed me on one little segment almost wrecked when I just jumped down a curb and he realized almost too late that skinny tires and a carbon frame weren't doing that.

I'm running Conti Crossrides 42mm.

What I'm giving up over the skinny tires? ( I also run a 22mm 24mm set of slicks on the same bike for organized road rides)

About a pound
A couple of square inches of frontal area and a not so aero wheel profile.
A few more square inches of side area that produces more crosswind sensitivity. (that's the worst part)

What I've gained?
I can go about anywhere reasonably fast.

SPD road pedals

JBHoren

Yes (see sig-block, below)