We filmed a video recently where we compared the differences between road
bikes and Cyclocross bikes. While we were writing the script, it occurred to us that
with the new breed of so-called endurance road bikes, the differences between the
two are now much, much smaller. So, we wondered, and some of you did too in the
comments section, whether or not you could ride Cyclocross on a road bike.
So, we thought we would give it a try. This is a Canyon Endurace road bike
with Cyclocross tires on. Now, I did ask Canyon, who've kindly lent me this bike,
whether or not this was able to ride Cyclocross. They said that when this bike
was designed, it did not have Cyclocross in mind in the slightest.
It is not what it's been designed for. But they also said it is a blooming good bike.
So, sounds like a challenge.
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This average-looking urban park is Cyclocross. Racing around an unloved area
of grass and dirt, open and accessible to all. In fact, there was actually a race on
this very patch of ground just a few weeks back. So what better place to put the
Endurace through its paces than with a lap or two of an actual Cyclocross course?
We've got a really steep climb, loads of muddy, bumpy grass, and a fair few
slippery corners. Now, the first thing you'll notice, I'm sure, when you venture
off-road on your road bike, is the pedals. Now, yeah, you can run double-sided
mountain bike pedals and use mountain bike shoes with your road bike.
But to my mind, road pedals just feel so much better. They are what should be on
your road bike. But as soon as you start trying to clip in on bumpy terrain,
it becomes much, much harder. In fact, it makes us all into Matt Stephens.
I'm in.
Now, we are quickly into our first
obstacle which is this dirty, steep little climb that I would just about ride on a
cross bike, with a 42 chainring and a 28 cassette. But, strangely,
you might think, on this, which is a bike designed to go much faster,
the bottom gear is actually a lot lower. And so, the steepness of it isn't a
problem. What is, however, is the fact that it's muddy and also frozen.
Don't worry. I'm there, I'm there.
♪ [music] ♪
I'm in, I'm in.
Then there's the comfort.
Now, as I said, these tires are quite narrow for Cyclocross, nowadays
anyway. The UCI legal limit is 33, but I would choose 35c wide tires for general
riding, and a lot of people go much wider than that. The reason being that you get
much more grip and you also get a lot more comfort because you can run them slightly
softer without risk of puncturing. But with these ones, you have to run them much
harder because they are that bit narrower. So, I've got 50psi. And so, on this bike,
even though it's been designed with stacks of virtual compliance to be smooth as
butter on the road, here, on bumpy grass with narrow, hard tires,
it's quite hard work.
♪ [music] ♪
Okay, so we've just got a few slippery corners and a little descent to come.
Nothing scary, but it is gonna test out the handling of this bike. Because road
bikes are a little bit twitchier than Cyclocross bikes, the back end is a bit
shorter. And so, while that means that it climbs brilliantly on the road,
it's a little bit harder to control when the going is slippery,
and so when you're starting to slide. Then similarly, the front end makes it slightly
harder, too. The front wheel is tucked quite far underneath, and so for a start,
you can hit your feet against the tire on slow speed corners. But also,
when you do start to slide, it is a little bit more nervous. And if you get a bit
nerdy about it, it's actually because the head angle on road bikes is about a degree
steeper than Cyclocross bikes. So, It makes this bike feel rather similar to an
old school cross bike, which is actually pretty good fun. And it's definitely not
all bad with road geometry as well because it has a lower bottom bracket.
And so, what that means is that when you do get to lean the bike over in
corners, if you do have loads of grip, the bike feels much more secure and also
much easier to change direction.
♪ [music] ♪
All right, one lap down. How are we looking? Well, pretty good I think it's
fair to say. The clearance isn't the issue that I thought it would be,
not today anyway. I think it wouldn't take much more mud for me to be quickly
grinding to a halt. But, here and now, I am absolutely fine. And we're at the
geometry there and that was one of the big questions I had. And to be fair,
this bike is really quite capable off-road. It's not too nervous,
although you would quickly find the limits if you're pushing hard off-road.
Actually those limits will be more quickly felt when you're going slower in really
technical terrain I've found. And then there's the fact that I haven't been able
to go anywhere near that big chainring because it's a 52, and 52t chainring,
I mean, you're going really quite fast and I haven't been going very fast.
But, to be fair, the biggest difference I think, between this and a cross bike,
is actually the tire width. These tires are just a little bit too narrow for my
taste. Something a bit wider will unlock loads more potential and also be much more
fun riding off-road. But there is one thing that we haven't touched on yet
today, and that is strength. Is a road bike strong enough to be ridden off-road
or, quite frankly, will you break it? Well, we put that question to two of the
manufacturers that you see here. Firstly Reynolds, who make these rather
gorgeous-looking wheels here. And they said that these wheels are perfect for
Cyclocross or gravel riding despite the fact that they're pretty lightweight.
And they also said that actually they exceed the UCI's minimum strength
requirements for road by 100%. So, they are twice as strong as they need to be.
Then we also asked Canyon, who allowed us to use their lovely bike off-road,
and they reiterated once again that it is not designed for Cyclocross.
But, in terms of strength, it is as strong as a cross bike. Ultimately, though,
what about our original question? Can you ride a road bike off-road?
I suppose the answer does appear to be yes, you can. Now, if you want to see more
videos like this, the first thing you need to do is subscribe to GCN because
then you're always in the right place. To do that, you've just got to click on the
globe, wherever that may be. And then more content for now. Well, how about
checking out that video where we talked about, at the beginning, comparing the
differences between road bikes and Cyclocross bikes.
If you want to get to that, you've just got to click up there.
Or to actually get some technique for off-road, why not learn from the
undisputed master, Sven Nys. He's got some of his best Cyclocross tips in that
video just there.