Whether or not you plan on participating in the crazy sport of cyclocross, a cross bike is something that every cyclist can enjoy and get plenty of use from. Cross bikes are fast on the road and open up more possibilities for routes, conditions, and terrain that can be ridden.

The regular road ride can be spiced up with a quick jaunt onto some crushed gravel paths in the forest preserves. Taking a cross bike onto mountain bike trails that have become mastered adds a completely different challenge. Also, riding trails is a lot more fun on a cross bike than on a mountain bike. Riding mellower trails on a cross bike can be way more than fun than on a true mountain bike.

Many cross bikes also have features that make them commuter friendly, as well. Rack and fender mounts are found on just about any aluminum-framed cross bike, making it the perfect wet weather, winter, and light tour rig. Having a dedicated fender bike keeps the road rig ready for the nice days, keeps your feet from getting wet in rainy/snowy weather, increasing ride comfort, and the bike’s drivetrain is more protected from the grit and grime of the wet streets.

There are many more options like this to be found on the hand-made bikes from Seven Cycles, Firefly Bicycles, Parlee Cycles, and Serotta. Here’s a good example of what we’re talking about.

Many of us at Get a Grip Cycles ride cross bikes to train and race in the Chicago Cross Cup series. Others use them for the other reasons listed above.

Here is an example of some of the trail-worthiness of a cross bike:

The fourth-annual Get A Grip Cycles & Revolution Spin Chili Cook-Off is coming up Oct. 26th and the race is on to defeat Kevin Costello's (owner, Get A Grip Cycles) "Texas Showdown Chili," which is, admittedly, ridiculously good. We've all got our work cut out for us. You, too, if you'd like to come by and/or enter your super-secret-special batch of chili, →

We often encounter knee tracking issues that stem from the placement of the cleat on the shoe and the overall width of the pedals on the bike. When the knee tends to flair away from the top tube over the top of the pedal stroke, one culprit could be stance width. In order to keep that knee over the foot, stance →

Get a Grip Cycles is the first shop in the Midwest to receive the latest aero bikes from Cervelo and Scott. We live for these moments. Introducing: The 2012 Cervelo S5 Cervelo is introducing the S5 for 2012. Cervelo created the aero road bike segment with the Soloist and S2 models, leading to the design of the Tour De France-winning S3. Where other →

One day, Brent Peebles decided to go from working "billions" of hours for IBM to working and living for...himself and his family. This is a story of the proverbial escape from corporate America. Though still a burgeoning cyclist, he's like an Energizer bunny with his heart and mind in the game--just the kind of client we here at Get A Grip →

Guess it's no surprise we love to see bicycles go out the door but it's more than that. It's seeing the RIGHT bike go out the door with the RIGHT cyclist. And hopefully that's how John Montgomery's recent Get A Grip Cycles experience panned out; Montgomery picked up a Scott CR1, a bike that walks the line between performance and comfort →

If you've got skin in the serious, multi-front effort to make Chicago a true cycling community with a lifestyle we all love, not a "green city" unprepared to back up the talk... THIS IS YOUR MOMENT. This Friday, June 3, the folks behind the Chicago Velo Campus are hosting an extremely crucial fundraiser at the Adler Planetarium that we all need →

While riding into work the other day, a thought struck me. I am riding a bike that I designed the geometry, picked the color, and every single component. It literally feels like an extension of my body. Does that give it something that goes beyond a mere object? I have a stock mountain bike that I have been riding for 10 →

Get A Grip Cycles is very proud, pleased, and freakin' pumped, to announce that we're on a short list of authorized dealers that'll be carring the newly formed Firefly Bicycles. The crew of builders here has a handmade bicycle lineage/resume that's near sacred and now they're doing things their own way in their new facility in Boston...where they started things by →

The bike industry as a whole is constantly looking for “The Magic Pill” that a cyclist can take and instantly know what bike is right for them and how it should be set up to fit them. The truth is there is no one magic formula (but here is our best shot at describing our entire bike-to-rider fitting process). It would be →