Would my Crux be as fast as a road bike with new wheels?

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AJS914
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by AJS914

The snow has melted and street sweepers have cleaned the sand off the roads a bit so I took out my road bike yesterday after riding the Crux all winter.

It's like "wow!" my C59 is so much faster than the Crux with 40mm tires. It got me wondering if my Crux would feel as fast as a racing road bike with a lighter weight wheelset. Any thoughts?

The other thing is that after riding 40mm tires all winter, I really felt how uncomfortable a road bike with 23mm tires is in comparison. The Crux with 40mm Clement MSO Xplor tires is downright cushy and comfortable! And the Crux's comfort is fantastic for doing Z1/2 base mile rides.

aaronpass
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by aaronpass

I used my Crux on the road and I couldn't tell any difference between that and my Tarmac Disc at the time... Sold the Tarmac Disc.
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Ltyarbro42
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by Ltyarbro42

I raced 4s with a guy who rode a Crux the whole season. He seemed to do alright.

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IrrelevantD
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by IrrelevantD

It's mostly going to depend on your setup. You'll see margional diferences betwen the bikes in weight and aero depending on if you have the CF or AL CruX, and maybe a little bit of a difference in handling from different tube angles, wheelbase, etc. Probably the biggest difference you will see though will be how aero your body is between the two bikes. If you're more upright on the CruX, you'll probably be a little slower. If you're in exactly the same position, it probably won't be much of a difference.

I have a friend that has a CruX and an Allex Sprint, has his CruX setup almost exactly the same as the Sprint and said he can't tell much difference aside from the Sprint being a little bit nimbler. Personally, I have an Allez Sprint and a Crockett, with a very close position on the latter, and I can tell a big difference in handling between the two, but overall speed is close... where I'd do a 25mph pull on the Sprint, I might be doing 23-24 on the Crockett. That difference closes up at lower speeds.

You might also consider going to a slightly bigger tire. While it's going to be slightly heavier, all indications are that a 25c is going to roll faster than a 23 and it will be a bit more comfortable. You might even find a 28c to be better. I run 25c tubeless at about 90psi and find them to be pretty comfortable on the road. I don't have much problem going back and forth between them and my 31c CX tires or my 38c GravelKing SKs (both at arround 50psi).
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Marin
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by Marin

It would actually be as fast with just faster tires, no need to change the wheels. Try it!

AJS914
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by AJS914

Unfortunately, I have these Stan's Iron Cross rims with a 50 psi pressure limit so I couldn't really install 28mm road tires and make it work without exceeding the psi. And not that I need to do this. I have my Colnago for road rides and the Crux for gravel/adventure rides. Riding the Colnago for the first time in months just provided a stark contrast. The Colnago felt so much faster. I guess it's mostly the 40mm tires on the Crux.


You might also consider going to a slightly bigger tire. While it's going to be slightly heavier, all indications are that a 25c is going to roll faster than a 23 and it will be a bit more comfortable. You might even find a 28c to be better. I run 25c tubeless at about 90psi and find them to be pretty comfortable on the road.
My GP4000 23s already measure out to 25mm and that is the max on a C59. I do run them 80psi front / 90psi rear and that makes a good difference in comfort compared to 100psi. The experience does make me think about a modern frame that could run wide rims and 28mm tires that measure out to 30-32mm.

But today I can ride the C59 or the Crux and I think I'm going to choose the Crux and mostly hit trails. It is such a fun bike to ride.

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IrrelevantD
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by IrrelevantD

I'm guessing then your CruX is disc. I have the double edged sword of my Crockett being a canti; craptastic braking, but it givng me a wide variety of wheels to chose from between it, my Allez Sprint and my old Trek 1200 I keep arround for when my dad comes to town.
* There is a 70% chance that what you have just read has a peppering of cynicism or sarcasm and generally should not be taken seriously.
I'll leave it up to you to figure out the other 30%. If you are in any way offended, that's on you.

Marin
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by Marin

Get some fat Compass or Grand Bois slicks for the Crux then. You'll be just as fast as on the C59 on the road, and you'll be surprised how well they work offroad when it's not muddy. Make sure you are sitting down when you see the price tag though.

My main road bike now runs 42mm slicks (on 650b) and it's definitely not slow.

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jcrr
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by jcrr

AJS914 wrote:
Tue Mar 20, 2018 9:19 pm
Unfortunately, I have these Stan's Iron Cross rims with a 50 psi pressure limit so I couldn't really install 28mm road tires and make it work without exceeding the psi. And not that I need to do this. I have my Colnago for road rides and the Crux for gravel/adventure rides. Riding the Colnago for the first time in months just provided a stark contrast. The Colnago felt so much faster. I guess it's mostly the 40mm tires on the Crux.


May I suggest you stop by the thread below were a few of us have gathered some pressure/tire data on some Stan's models, to give you some more options?

viewtopic.php?p=1372887#p1372887

JC
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flashpunk
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by flashpunk

jcrr wrote:
AJS914 wrote:
Tue Mar 20, 2018 9:19 pm
Unfortunately, I have these Stan's Iron Cross rims with a 50 psi pressure limit so I couldn't really install 28mm road tires and make it work without exceeding the psi. And not that I need to do this. I have my Colnago for road rides and the Crux for gravel/adventure rides. Riding the Colnago for the first time in months just provided a stark contrast. The Colnago felt so much faster. I guess it's mostly the 40mm tires on the Crux.


May I suggest you stop by the thread below were a few of us have gathered some pressure/tire data on some Stan's models, to give you some more options?

viewtopic.php?p=1372887#p1372887

JC
There are a few tubeless road tires out there. I use iirc roadlite. Should be able to run them at low pressures like that.

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IrrelevantD
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by IrrelevantD

flashpunk wrote:
Thu Mar 22, 2018 11:47 pm
There are a few tubeless road tires out there. I use iirc roadlite. Should be able to run them at low pressures like that.
Personally, I don't know that I'd run anything road specific smaller than about a 30 under 50psi. From my experience with 25 and 28c tires, even running tubeless, they start to get really squirmy about that point. I think the OP's best option is to either live with the extra weight of a 32c slick or semi-slick at lower pressure and sacrafice a little speed, or get a second set of wheels and run 25s or 28s at a little higher pressure.
* There is a 70% chance that what you have just read has a peppering of cynicism or sarcasm and generally should not be taken seriously.
I'll leave it up to you to figure out the other 30%. If you are in any way offended, that's on you.

tonytourist
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by tonytourist

I was running Compass 38s on my Crux in road mode for 2.5 months and prior to that I was running 38 Gravel King SKs (they're back on again) and depending on the ride I was within 5-10% of my typical road riding speeds. The main issue with my setup is I am running 1x11 and the gear jumps on the wide range 10/42 cassette make it tough for aggressive group riding in my opinion. Depending on your tire and gear setup you should be pretty close to typical road bike speeds in my opinion.

LeePaton
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by LeePaton

So many teams used cross bikes for Roubaix your cross bike will be more than fast enough, the limiting factor will as always be you.

kafreeman
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by kafreeman

I've got three wheel sets for my Crockett:
Some Vuelta alloy... 440g rims rebuilt with BHS hubs
Reynolds Assault
Kinlin XR31TS on novatecs

Well I'm down to two I bent the hooks on the rear wheel XR31TS on a pothole.

I've also got a set of Xr31 on BHS hubs on my giant aluxx road bike.

The giant has been living on the trainer.

Both are roughly the same weight.

I am a lot more upright on the Crockett. Marginal avg speed diff on the road.

I keep looking at other bikes and can't really spring for another. Geometries tend to be so close other than saving a pound I can't see an advantage.

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jfranci3
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by jfranci3

I use a crockett for everything. I use DT Swiss R32 DB (ER1600 now) & 25c tires for road mode. There's about a 1-1.5mph difference between road and gravel mode.

In the same position, same wheels, same tires, same gearing, you probably couldn't tell the difference. It'd be 400g heavier or so, shorter top tube, and give up a some ride/stiffness/areo. The top of the fork is a bit wider.

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