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Getting a bike for tarmac and gravel

Hi all

I would appreciate your advice on the following:

I have been commuting on an entry level CX (Merida cyclocross 3 with tiagra 46/36 and 12-25 cassette at 11kg) for about five years. Recently I have however became more interested in cycling, and I want to try out racing. I am drawn to both road racing as well as off road events. Here (in Sweden) there are quiet a few amateur “mtb” races, but these are not particularly technical, and could certainly be ridden on a CX/gravel bike given the right gearing. I also like going by bike into the forest and camping etc.

 

So, I am thinking about an appropriate bike for these somewhat schizophrenic requirements. 

One possibility that I have considered is a Rose xeon cdx cross/gravel with 50/34 and 11-32 or 11-28 at just under 8 kg. 

 

I am thinking that by running slicks it would be pretty much as fast as a normal road bike on tarmac: The slightly larger clearance (enough for 42mm tires or so) should result only in a minuscule increase in drag, right? Most of the drag comes from the rider, so by mounting a downward sloping stem, one could get an aggressive position suitable for road, wouldn’t you agree? Meanwhile, it would be possible to mount proper off road tires. 

 

Also, the gearing is sufficiently wide for riding on tarmac even slightly downhill, while 34/32 would allow climbing steep slopes in terrain. Here the only issue I could think of is that the steps are somewhat large in the cassette, but many road-bikes are sold with 11-32 cassettes, so it can’t be that bad, right? 

 

I don’t have a watt meter, but typically I cruise at 21-23 mph or so on tarmac with my CX. With my current bike I spin out on slight downhills but I also run out of gears when going uphill in the forest. So for these reasons, and also weight/performance etc I want to upgrade to a better bike. 

As I said, I am new to the sport so I would really appreciate some input from more experienced riders. 

 

Cheers

//

Johan

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