Is retro cyclocross bikes a thing?

[ultrazenith]

I've got curious about trying cyclocross out, and immediately thought about looking for a retro CX bike, expecting to be able to find a decent, steel one from the 90s or 80s for a good price. But to no avail. Does such a thing exist, and where might I find one?

Failing that, I could always try CX racing on a rigid retro MTB...

 

[caemis]

I am looking for vintage CX bikes quite a while and just saw a few pop up here and there. My impression is, other than the mountainbike market at least since the late 80s, that CX never was really "IN" until recently... Basically not "many" frames where made and far less survived the abuse of muddy races.

Good luck!

 

[WimVDD]

Re:

I believe I can say cyclocross was invented here in Belgium. ;-) So as a retro-fanatic I just had to have one. But goodness, it was very hard to find one. I finally found one (and a bit later a second one) but I have to say these older cx-bikes are a bit disappointing. Back in the eighties and early nineties, CX-races were mostly mudraces so bikes don't take the current +30 mm tyres. When I'm going out for an offroad ride, I better take enough spare inner tubes...

One of my CX-bikes is a 1985 aluminium Alan (I built as a neo retro) and, except from the very narrow rear triangle, it's nice riding it. It's pretty light and modern parts make braking and shifting not too frustrating. My second one (thank God I only paid 25 € for the frame) was a complete waste of money: as many of the cx-bikes back than, it was nothing more than a modified race bike: someone had some canti bosses brazed on the rear stays by one or other local frame builder and that was it. Putting 30 mm tyres in it was almost impossible.

I think mid-nineties CX bikes are a better choice than those earlier ones.

But in case you still want one: what size are you looking for?

 

[WimVDD]

This is my neo retro Alan.

 

[ultrazenith]

I'd be looking for an XL ... I didn't realise the earlier CX bikes had such limited tyre clearance.

 

[WimVDD]

I'd be looking for an XL ... I didn't realise the earlier CX bikes had such limited tyre clearance.

The Alan on the photo has 35 mm tyres in it and these rub when pushing the pedals...

XL, is that 56 or even more? How tall are you? Do you have a certain budget in mind? I'm asking because I watch local sites regularly and here in Belgium, they pop up (be it rarely).

 

[Woz]

Since joining RB I've been on the look-out for an old CX for just short winter rides. Very few and far between, plus there is some weird
stuff like no rear canti-hangers and just a drill hole through the seat-post on some. No bottle cage mounts of course. I guess a lot of the
steel stuff just rotted away. BITD is wasn't considered a "serious" sport in the UK.

I'd say the best chance is to land a Alan like above. I went neo-retro and bought a Masi CX, a kind of precursor to today's gravel bikes.

 

[hamster]

In the UK people seemed largely to have re-purposed what they had - for example winter trainer frames which had mudguard clearance. Dedicated frames are rare. Also, there was the whole novelty of mountain bikes hitting the scene at the same time.
Paul Milnes and Elmy Cycles kept the flame alive.

 

[ultrazenith]

When I looked at CX race reports from my local area I noticed it's mostly just XC or road racers doing CX during the winter. I see now it's never been a mainstream type of riding for leisure, hence there are almost no retro ones out there being found in garages and lofts.

 

[mattr]

When I looked at CX race reports from my local area I noticed it's mostly just XC or road racers doing CX during the winter. I see now it's never been a mainstream type of riding for leisure, hence there are almost no retro ones out there being found in garages and lofts.

In the UK people seemed largely to have re-purposed what they had

Well, it's always been a road racers winter sport, both europe and the UK, that's where the whole thing came from in the first place. So repurposed road bikes are retro CX bikes.

And there are limited retro options as the bikes have a very hard life and hand me down frames/bikes is the way most people got started. Wouldn't be that unusual 30 years ago to start as a juvenile on your dads spare bike (2 or 3 sizes too big) that was already 3rd hand and 7 or 8 seasons old. Grow into it, break it, then get another second hand bike from someone in the local league. Then upwards from there.

It's still not that unusual to see a couple of dozen bikes (or matching pairs of bikes) for sale at the last round of your local league. Or the day after on facebook.