Newbies’ Guide to CX - Picking a bike

So you're interested in trying cyclocross - that's great! Welcome aboard! To try cyclocross, the first thing you'll need is a bike (obviously).

There are a few options out there for you, so let's run through each of them.

CROSS BIKE

Obviously, the bike most suited to riding and racing cyclocross is a cyclocross bike. They're great fun on the race course, make for excellent commuter bikes, and are generally one of the most practical bikes for the kind of riding most of us do most of the time. A cross bike most closely resembles a road bike, with its drop bars and 700c wheels. However, there are a few key differences:

• Wider tyres - CX bikes run chunkier tyres than their counterparts on the road, to help deal with the reduced traction of riding and racing over many different surfaces. If you want to engage in high-level UCI-sanctioned racing, you'll be limited to a tyre that's 33mm wide. If you're racing at a club level, 35mm will usually be accepted (and possibly even 40mm, depending on the organiser). CX tyres will normally have a studded tread pattern, which can vary between tyres depending on the conditions they're designed for.

• Higher bottom bracket - the bottom bracket (where the cranks attach to the frame) of a CX bike will usually be higher off the ground than on a road bike, to provide greater ground clearance and prevent riders from striking their pedals on obstacles.

• Slacker head tube angle - the angle of the head tube of the bike (where the fork attaches to the frame) of a CX bike will often be a few degrees more relaxed than on a road bike, to help manoeuvre the bike around slow speed corners and tight hairpin turns - both of which are far more common in cyclocross than on the road.

In terms of the equipment on the bikes, it's become commonplace within the past 5-10 years for bikes to be sold with disc brakes and a single front chainring. Disc brakes replaced the previous cantilever ('canti') brakes because they offer greater stopping power and control in wet weather, while the single front chainring has become standard because they're less likely to malfunction in muddy conditions, and when paired with a wide cassette gives a similar gear range.

If you're just starting out in cyclocross and want to get a bike for yourself, we'd recommend looking for an alloy-framed CX bike with disc brakes and a mid-range groupset (Shimano 105 or SRAM Apex), which you pick up new for around $2000-$2500 in Australia or New Zealand. You can see a selection of these sorts of bikes here.

Want to know which tyres you should run on your cross bike? That's a whole other topic, which you can see a great article on here.

MOUNTAIN BIKE/HYBRID BIKE

Got an old mountain bike in the back of the shed? Great news - you can use it to race cyclocross!

Most races will have an 'Open' category, which allows any bike with at least one working brake to enter. This category is perfectly suited to hardtail mountain bikes or hybrid commuting bikes, especially if you already have one and you're not sure about whether CX is right for you.

Because CX courses are designed to be ridden on a bike with no suspension, the features are often not gnarly enough for a mountain bike (especially one with front and rear suspension) to offer a considerable advantage - while most CX racers on mountain bikes can keep up in the corners, they often lose ground to lighter CX-specific bikes as soon as the race heads uphill.

GRAVEL BIKE

Broadly similar to a CX bike, there will still be a few key differences between the increasingly popular range of gravel bikes and a traditional cyclocross racer. The most obvious of these is the tyres - most gravel bikes will have even wider tyres than their cyclocross-specific equivalents, often up to 50mm wide compared to the 33mm of a CX racing tyre. Some gravel bikes will also run smaller 650b wheels, in order to increase the potential size of tyres they can run.

There are other differences as well - gravel bikes will have slacker headtubes and slower steering, as they’re rarely required to manoeuvre around tight hairpins. They’ll also have a lower bottom bracket than a cross bike, given that clearing obstacles is less of a concern when gravel grinding.

Ultimately the choice between a CX and gravel bike will come down to which you think you’ll be doing more of - grinding out long days on the gravel, or pushing the tape on a CX course. If it’s the former, your gravel bike will still do the job on a CX course - you’ll just need to fit skinnier tyres and throw your body around a bit more through the corners.

SINGLESPEED

Like a standard cyclocross bike, but with only one gear. Want to lay on the power on the flat sections? You gotta spin it to win it. Got a tough climb coming up? Get ready to grind your way up. Because you only have one gear, your selection of cogs can mean the difference between success and failure.

Singlespeed CX devotees are known to be just as selective about their gear ratios as pro CX racers are about their tyres - which is very selective indeed. Unlike regular CX races, a single speed race tends to be an all-in affair, with all riders competing together with no separations by age, gender, or ability.

The best analogy we can give for the appeal of singlespeed racing is that of car drivers who prefer a classic manual transmission. It may not be as technically efficient or as fast as a modern alternative, but the extra involvement one feels with the machine makes using it a more rewarding (dare we say spiritual) experience.

TRACKLOCROSS

No gears, no brakes, no f*cks given. The most hardcore and extreme form of CX bikes, a tracklocross bike is essentially a track bike with mud tyres. Like a singlespeed on steroids. Like introducing yourself to your Tinder date by licking them on the face. Unlike CX, road, or track bikes, which have curved drop bars, tracklocross bikes typically have wide MTB-style bars to help give greater control when cornering.

The absence of a freewheel means you're always pedalling forward or backward, either accelerating or braking (no coasting allowed, even when descending or in mid-air). Because you only have one gear, your selection of cogs can mean the difference between success and failure.

Given how difficult tracklocross bikes can be to operate and how few uses they have off the race course, tracklocross races are a rare breed, and tracklocross racers are an even rarer breed. It's a niche sport within a niche sport, so those who practice it are usually pretty interesting characters. If you want to try cyclocross at its weirdest, tracklocross just might be for you.

Photo: @bikeroo

ROAD BIKE

Haha, no.

Road bikes typically have tyres that are too skinny, brakes with little to no mud clearance, and gears that are too difficult to turn to be well suited to usage on the CX course. You could possibly get away with it if you're running disc brakes and 30mm slick tyres on a dry course, but aside from that road bikes and CX generally don't mix unless you like crashing a whole lot.