![]() It almost breaks my brain thinking about how good one bike can be on so many different surfaces, but the Crux manages to do just that. Likewise, I could also put some knobby tires on, jump into some rough singletrack, and the Crux will maintain its incredible poise and precision on either surface. It’s so light and responsive that I could easily see myself putting some 30mm width tires on the wheels, bolting up a front derailleur, adding a chainring, and entering a road race or criterium with this bike. The Crux comes as close as I can imagine to being the one bike that can conceivably do it all. ![]() English threaded (BSA) bottom bracket, a round 27.2 seatpost, and a standard bar/stem combo make the new Crux hassle-free and straightforward to work on. The refreshed geometry strikes the perfect balance between stability at speed and responsive handling. Using what they’ve learned from the successful Aethos road bike, Specialized has remade the Crux into quite possibly one of the most versatile and exceptional drop-bar bikes. Then we evaluated them on performance, price, comfort, handling, value, and reliability to come up with this list of bikes that will best serve the needs of anyone looking to add a new cyclocross bike to their collection. Often we swapped tires and other components to get a better understanding of each bike. Those that we haven’t put through the wringer personally, we selected based on experience with the product and firsthand knowledge of the parts, most of which we’ve tested separately on other bikes. And because these bikes are plain old fun to ride, we put in our fair share of road and gravel miles on these rigs. We pushed the bikes through hard, high-speed turns and tight hairpins, as well as slick off-cambers. We rode fast and dry conditions, as well as nasty, slippery mud. Most of the bikes on this list have been ridden hard on the cyclocross course near our Pennsylvania office during a weekly training series, and many have been raced by our team of test editors. → No matter what you need to improve in your riding life, find it with Bicycling All Access! How We Tested All of these bikes are race-ready for your local cyclocross event, plus can do double duty as gravel bikes the rest of the year. Bikes like the All-City Nature Cross swap in steel frames with carbon forks, which saves a bit of money but still offer a 1x drivetrain, disc brakes, plus a cool paint job. Dropping a little less money-below the $3,000 range on bikes like the Giant TCX Advanced Pro 2 or the Canyon Inflite CF SL-nets you a similar-quality carbon frame with a slightly heavier drivetrain and wheelset. Here’s how the marginal gains of cyclocross spending break down: The $3,000-4,300 level-where you’ll find the Vitus Energie EVO CRS eTap AXS, Santa Cruz Stigmata Rival, and Cannondale SuperX-gets you a precise SRAM 1x drivetrain and bikes that typically weigh about 17 to 18 pounds. However, you can still find a traditionally high BB (and greater pedal clearance) on European-style cross bikes, such as the Canyon Inflite CF SL or the Ribble CX SL. Manufacturers like Trek and Cannondale are putting out bikes with drops between 66mm and 70mm. Many brands continue to lower the bottom bracket height on their bikes, which gives better all-around handling. The Giant TCX Advanced Pro 2, for example, has a carbon frame and will set you back $2,600 for a race-ready spec. More Affordable Materials and Modernized GeometryĬarbon fiber is the frame material for mid-range and top-end cyclocross bikes, and you can now find quality rides made with it at more affordable prices. After all, the cyclocross bike was the original gravel race bike. However, many riders will be perfectly happy with bikes that are marketed as suited for both disciplines. Riders looking for pure cross racing bikes will need to look a little harder at smaller brands. It's a strategy that many larger brands are taking as they see the demand for gravel bikes surging. Specialized took their popular Crux cyclocross bike, tweaked the geometry, and are now selling it as both a lightweight gravel bike and one suited for cyclocross. Such brands include Cannondale, which sells their SuperSix Evo CX in two builds, one that is set up for racing cross and one that is set up for gravel. ![]() While large brands like Trek and Canyon still produce a dedicated cyclocross race bike alongside their gravel bike offerings, other brands have chosen to consolidate their lineups or, like Santa Cruz, market one bike for both gravel and cross, given the small market for pure cross bikes. The popularity and proliferation of gravel bikes have done quite a bit to eat into the popularity of dedicated cyclocross bikes. ![]()
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