The all around bike
Mood:  caffeinated
Topic: TREK XO1
9-6-05: DON'T FORGET THE 'CROSS BIKE!

After a week of sticking to my road bikes it hit me; i hadn't broke out the Trek XO1 for a while. This is odd because in addition to being my most expensive bike it is also my all around bike.

While manufactured as a race-ready cyclecross bike, the XO1 handles road and street equally well, especially now that it's got a less racy, standard rear cassette and a 48t big ring up front, which makes it so much easier to climb hills, and ride where the blacktop ends. But, with 32c tires, it isn't prohibitively slow on the blacktop either. The stiff-climbing frame, coupled with a more 'cross friendly 48t front big ring, make hills vanish.

I pulled out the XO1, and, increduously, realized I was late for work. Not a prob; a low gear and I rode up the grassy hill past the corner store, shaving three blocks off my commute. Rather than being late I arrived early enough to have a cold soda before starting my shift.

Though I enjoy a roadbike, and a finely made roadbike is a wonderful thing, a 'cross bike is a special machine. If you don't own one, get one -- you will understand. If you have one, don't neglect it. In foul weather or short-cut commutes, they accel. They are sturdier, and somewhat racier in the frame angles, than road bikes, esp. as regards seat tube angle. Plus they enable you to continue your fun -- even where the blocktop ends.