Cyclocross bike as a tourer?

[Pete Berry]

Geezer in August's Cycling Plus did the South Downs way on a cyclocross bike. I like drops, have a couple of rides that would be totally different if I could do 2 or 3 miles of farm tracks/green lane stuff and fancy a mix of road and off road.What would it take to make a bike that was fastish on the road but could still handle roughish country and perhaps be a good winter bike? Issues like tyres, mudguards, drivetrain occur to me...Ta

[SortedCycles]

You'll also need to think about things like bottle bosses and rack mounts. Mudguards can easily be bodged on with p-clips but, if you're planning on covering any real distances you'll need a rack and p-clips won't take big loads. As most cross frames are designed for racing they don't have bottle bosses either - the rides simply use feed stations on the course. Drivetrain shouldn't be too much of an issue simply mix and match road and mtb. The one thing to be aware of is that road STIs are not good with v-brakes (old style cantilevers will work fine), nor will they operate a mtb front mech properly.