The age old question....should my next bike be a cross or touring bike?

[fallstoclimb]

Currently I have a Specialized Dolce (48 cm I think?) for my road rides and a Trek FX 7.2 for my 11-mile roundtrip commute and short around-town rides. I hate the hybrid, and am going to reward myself for paying off my student loans 6 years early by selling it and buying a new bike!

Things I don't like about the hybrid that I hope the new bike will solve:
1) Aluminum fork KILLED my hands doing the C&O this year, despite getting trekking bars -- so I'll def go either steel or carbon fork
2) The damn v-brakes on my hybrid are difficult to adjust properly and always get knocked against the rim and start rubbing.
3) I feel like a dork sitting so upright, and when I wear my laptop backpack the straps pull on my shoulders from being so upright. Also the upright angle gives me difficulty in the netherregion on longer rides.
4) I just generally feel like I can't harness any power on my hybrid and its really slow to ride. Not that I need to race my commute but it would be nice to be on a more fun bike. The geometry doesn't let me do a proper standing climb or duck under the wind.


So I'm trying to decide between getting a touring or cross bike. The new bike will be primarily for my commute and riding around town, like I mentioned, but the husband and I are hoping to do more bike touring in the future as well, and I won't be able to get another bike for that. Minimal trails/offroad riding, no interest in actual cross racing.

What I see as the pros/cons of each type of bike (may not be accurate!):

Cross bike -- faster and more fun, better for around town and my bike commute, but limited loading capabilities and possibly unsteady under a load?

Touring bike -- slower and steadier which I may find frustrating, but obviously more suited for the touring we hope to do. Husband claims touring bikes can be unsteady when *not* loaded, although I'm having a hard time believing that.

I'm not sure how much the load *really* matters -- we did a few nights camping on the C&O just fine with rear panniers on both of our bikes (husband has a steel cyclocross from bikes direct) and my husband pulling a trailer. I don't actually think we'd need many more things for a long tour, we'd just have to wash clothes and repurchase food along the way.

I will also have to choose between steel and aluminum/carbon I guess - do touring bikes come as aluminum/carbon?

I've tried to do some research on this, but I started reading things about "heel clearance" and "high bottom brackets" and my head started spinning (what is the point of a low vs high center of gravity?). I'm concerned I will make the mistake of getting the better "all around" bike and will then be frustrated with it not being good at anything -- this is basically what happened with my hybrid, after all.

I'm open to specific bike suggestions - I've heard good things about the Surley cross check, but I wonder how I will feel about a steel bike as I've never ridden one.

[Charlieggo]

How about a light tourer? It will have the proper braze ons for adding racks, fenders, bags, whatever you want for those times when you're touring, but make great bikes for cruising around town. The Soma Saga and Bianchi Volpe come to mind.
Good luck.

[fallstoclimb]

All of these bikes look nice. I'm not even sure how to evaluate them! I haven't started actually shopping yet, but my fear is that no bike shop will carry touring bikes in a petite lady size.

[Sky King]

Where do you Live? Go to The Surly Website and look for dealers. Don't be afraid of a steel bike For me, it was the answer to road fatigue. If your head can't get wrapped around a touring bike than look at the cross check and the straggler. Both come in smaller sizes. BIG NOTE - if you were in my shop I would be putting you on a bigger bike than any racing style bike. Go read about the bike on our website. Happy Shopping

All of these bikes look nice. I'm not even sure how to evaluate them! I haven't started actually shopping yet, but my fear is that no bike shop will carry touring bikes in a petite lady size.

[Blueberry]

BIG NOTE - if you were in my shop I would be putting you on a bigger bike than any racing style bike. Go read about the bike on our website. Happy Shopping

SkyKing-

I'm curious about this....for the Straggler and the Cross Check. I find that I ride a 52 cm road frame, but a 50 cm cross check/straggler (since the BB is higher, I have to size down to get the same effective top tube). Have you not found this to be true?

[pll]

I've been curious about this, too. The size 50 CC is equivalent to my road bike, a Pinarello race set-up. But it sounds like I'd need a larger Surly? How would I even figure this out? I hate being too stretched out. I assume it's stack and head tube height, and a touring bike should be more upright?

OP, I didn't mean to get so far off your question about Surly's. I love Surly's. It's just I know of quite a few petite TE'ers on Salsa VAyas. The smallest Vaya's have 26" wheels and very high head tubes. Makes standover less of a problem, and possibly mitigate toe-overlap, while still having a very high front end, allowing the rider to sit up a little.

The reason a high bottom bracket is problematic in a petit bike is that it implies higher standover. It's generally at least 1 cm higher than a comparable road bike. I know some women on this forum have a 25-27 inch inseam, or thereabouts, and struggle to find a bike that is small enough in the top tube and has low enough standover. The Vaya has excellent low standover, while still a high enough front end (head tube) to be upright and comfortable.

To me, the Surly Cross Check is more a classic diamond frame (higher standover, lower front end). The regular Surly Straggler is too, but they are coming out with a sloping TT Straggler soon. (See website). Unfortunately, it doesn't look like the standovers are any lower on that model (sloping), which doesn't make sense. The main difference is that it has 650B wheels, to the Straggler's larger 700c. Which implies a difference in handling. (Note, these are suppositions on my part, people like Sky King would know more).

Cross bikes do have a more classic geometry because you need to run with your bike on your shoulder... here's a video that shows the techniques (handy also for carrying your bike up stairs to an apartment): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBAbZzFeT34
I also think cross bikes have a slightly longer wheelbase for stability and a bottom bracket that is a little bit higher than a road bike (for clearance over obstacles).

[TelemarkK]

All of these bikes look nice. I'm not even sure how to evaluate them! I haven't started actually shopping yet, but my fear is that no bike shop will carry touring bikes in a petite lady size.

Do you have a Giant dealer nearby? They have a women's CX bike - the Invite 2 and it comes in XS (14.5), S (16.5), M (18). I recently tested it at a LBS and it's among my top 3 choices for my next commuter bike... may be worth a look if you have a nearby dealer. FWIW, I'm about 5'5" and was testing a size M and it was comfortable... but they didn't have a S for comparison.

[TrekDianna]

Typed and disappeared... I have a Salsa Vaya 3 and I love it. It's steel. I commute on it every day. It's definitely not slow. It's also set up for touring.

[fallstoclimb]

The Salsa does look nice! I've never even heard of that brand. I have a lot to look into now. I'm not sure what my inseam is, I'm not quite 5'3". Toe crossover is one issue that I never had on my road bike, which has normal-size tires -- my feet are tiny which I think helps here!

So I'll have to do a tour of the area shops (I'm in MD) and see what they have in stock that's anywhere close to my size, since there are so many factors to consider here! My husband ordered his cross off bikesdirect and had no issues making it work for him, but us petite ladies are always going to have challenges I guess! Luckily we do have a ton of shops around us.