Bike choice for the Dirty Gran Fondo / Double-Cross

[chriscole]

Hi folks,

Aiming to participate in the Big Hill Dirty Gran Fondo / Double Cross in September, but am undecided about which bike to take, and wondering if those with (a) experience with the actual course, and/or (b) strong opinions, might help guide my choice?

Options:

- CX bike with discs and knobbly clincher tyres on it (which I might convert to tubeless prior to the race, anyway)
- MTB 650B hardtail

The CX bike is clearly going to be significantly faster on the open / hard-packed / road stuff, but I can be a bit sketchy on loose gravel type surfaces (or sand). The MTB would be slower, but would allow a casual disregard of terrain and surfaces.

What would you do??

[silentbutdeadly]

The CX. Practise with it. Learn how to ride the CX bike so that it isn't as sketchy...that's what it takes. I dropped the seat slightly and shortened/raised the stem (went to a 17 degree one) on mine...big help. Not quite so mad and low on confidence now.

[chriscole]

Thanks SBD.

Generally pretty happy on my CX bike, as I ride it just about everywhere anyway, & have done a couple of CX races on it. Have only recently (this year) acquired the MTB (as I live about 1km from Stromlo and it seemed a travesty of justice not to have one) and have been enjoying the really-don't-have-to-care-nearly-as-much factor when it comes to what I'm riding on/over, both from a stability/fat-tyre and suspension perspective.

Guess I was just wondering more as to what the course is like and whether it is CX-friendly with a bit of better-off-with-a-MTB thrown in, or if it's the other way around.

Cheers,
Chris

[Marx]

Difference is, you've got to learn how to ride a CX fast on gravel/mud, but with a MTB (hardtail), you kinda don't have to.