What is a Cyclecross Bike?

Riding a bicycle is a great recreational sport, provides a fun work out, and is a viable form of transportation in many areas where urban traffic is difficult and annoying. Bikes have become increasingly popular throughout the world because they are relatively inexpensive, easy to use, and have very little impact on the global environment. For many young children, a bicycle represents that first taste of freedom, and is the primary manner in which a child will experience the world, until they are old enough to drive. Many people continue to ride their bikes into adulthood though, for the enjoyment of it and for the exercise, but whatever your reasons, biking is a great activity alone or with friends.

If you've been looking to get into biking or simply need a new way to get around, you'll need to know how to pick a bicycle to buy. In this free video series, our expert will tell you all about a variety of bikes and what each one does. Do you want to ride your bike on trails or in the city? Do you need to transport luggage with your bicycle? These are important questions to ask yourself before you buy a bicycle. With the tips and advice on bicycle and bicycle accessories from a biking expert, this video series will give you all the answers you need to make a smart and practical bike buying decision.

"Hi! This is Aaron Phillips with Expert Village and this is choosing the right bike for you. Standing here with my friend the cyclecross bike. Say it with me, cyclecross. This bike is basically a hybrid or a cross between a mountain bike and a road bike. The term cyclecross originated when a bunch of European racers wanted something to do during the off season in the Fall when it was muddy, rainy, cold and nasty in places like Belgium and France. Especially in Belgium, they got on their road bikes, put on some fat tires and started screaming around the race courses and called it cyclecross. There is a lot of mud, lot of cold and lot of fun. But what we did as just typical people as an outgrowth of that sport, is this nice little bike. Like I said it is a cross between a mountain bike and a road bike. If you are buying one bike and want a performance edge, you want to have some speed and also want to be able to take on some light trails, this is the bike for you. I am very fond of cyclecross bike. They are very great. One of the distinctive features of a cyclecross bike is at least out of the shop, is they come with some pretty heavy rubber. You've got a knobby tire here with kind of an aggressive tread pattern, got side knobs like you've got on a mountain bike so that you can corner in mud and maybe in snow and in dirt. So you've got that going for you, that's nice. The fork like I said is almost over built, it is very strong and is all aluminum. It soaks up a little bit of the impact from obstacles you are hitting, little rocks and things like that but also rolls very efficiently unlike suspension forks. It is a very efficient to kind of dampen some of the impact. It allows you pretty low gear frame so that when you do go out on the trails, you are able to kind of power up those hills and hit the gas and the flats and take off. So this is actually a mountain bike derailleur on this cyclecross bike and it is fairly common on cyclecross bikes. By the way, the leopard skin saddle comes extra. You've got to pay extra for that. I don't know how I came into the saddle but here it is on this bike, leopard skin. So I guess if I'm not as fast as a cheetah, I just look like a dork. But that's the cyclecross bike."