[mnathan]

I have been researching CX bikes and really benefitted from the discussions in this forum. I'm curious about taking these bikes out with my buds who have road bikes that are not CX. Their big rings go to 53. But the standard CX configuration is 38/46 Admittedly there are variations on this, but this is stock for many bikes, and it is likely to be found on the one I purchase.

What are your experiences keeping up on the flats and downhills with folks who have the bigger rings?

 

[bloodthirstylust]

I have been researching CX bikes and really benefitted from the discussions in this forum. I'm curious about taking these bikes out with my buds who have road bikes that are not CX. Their big rings go to 53. But the standard CX configuration is 38/46 Admittedly there are variations on this, but this is stock for many bikes, and it is likely to be found on the one I purchase.

What are your experiences keeping up on the flats and downhills with folks who have the bigger rings?

it depends on exactly who your riding with and how aggressive the ride is but I doubt you'll have too many problems. lets say you have 23c tires on cx and road bike, 12t cogs at the upper end of each cassette and 46 and 53t big rings on each. if you both hypotheticaly have a max cadence of 160, the road bike would top out at 55.3mph and the cx bike at 48mph. it's enough to make a difference but if your ride isn't too competitive and you can spin, you'll be ok. however if you stick a cassette on your bike with an 11t cog, you'd be able to spin at 52.4mph. now that's getting prety close to the roadie.

 

[jroden]

i ride training races and crits on mine in the late summer and keep up fine, you can calculate your max gear inches and see, I bet it is like a 53 x 15 or so which is not such a bad gear, you could throw on an 11-23 if you wanted some more meat.

 

[atpjunkie]

I pull off the 48 and toss on a 50

50-12 is equal to a 53-13 roughly. can keep up with just about anybody. I don't spin it out on a flat but on a slight downhill when I hit about 35 I don't feel like I'm putting much meat into the pedal

 

[MShaw]

I have been researching CX bikes and really benefitted from the discussions in this forum. I'm curious about taking these bikes out with my buds who have road bikes that are not CX. Their big rings go to 53. But the standard CX configuration is 38/46 Admittedly there are variations on this, but this is stock for many bikes, and it is likely to be found on the one I purchase.

What are your experiences keeping up on the flats and downhills with folks who have the bigger rings?

Quick rule of thumb: one tooth in the back is worth three in the front. Like ATPJunkie said: a 50x12 is about the same gear inches as a 53x13 combo.

If you've got a 110mm BCD crank, you CAN get all the way up to 53t(+) rings if you wanna change over every spring.

HTH,

M