My Ridley X-Night has been playing double duty while my road frameset receives warranty work. I threw my lightweight Shimano c24 carbon tubulars and keo carbon max2 pedals on my cx bike and have been riding it on long road rides. Besides the gearing 38-46T CX and 39-53T Road bike, i am not seeing a great deal of difference, which begs the question, what does the road bike offer that the cross bike does not?

You will find that this has been discussed at some length in the past.

Having said that, a more "road specific" geometry (lower bottom bracket height), road specific brakes (as opposed to cantis), different cable routing, and for those who prefer it, sloping frames. Usually also a wee bit lighter at the end of the day.

So, if you are viewing the glass as half full, there are close enough, if you view it as half empty, they are different (thought admittedly similar) tools that are being used at cross purposes, therefore being a compromise.

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Ive looked at this a few times as well. I ride a Kona Jake the Snake as essentially a full time road bike.

Im a "converted" MTBer who never ever thought Id enjoy sitting on a bike spinning down the pavement for hours at a time...
Thats why I went for th JTS to use as a multipurpose ride, however after spending more time on the bike Im finding Im using it as a full road bike.

The brakes seem to be the biggest varience that Im seeing so far. The bike also came with a very short stem, which I needed to swap out to get a little better fit.

The biggest difference is handling. I ride both my Ridley CX bike and my Tarmac on the road. The brakes are a bit different for sure. But the biggest difference is in the handling. The road bike handles faster that the CX bike by a bunch. It's also a bit lighter and brakes a bit better. However, if I could only have one bike it would be a cross bike- put on knobbies and you can do a lot f off road trail, put on fenders and ride in winter weather, and race it on the road.

It all depends on the brand of CX bike.

Ridleys have higher BBs. A lot of manufacturers are moving towards lower BBs, so if you were to simply swap forks or you like super slow handling, then it could work for you. In the end as long as you get used to it you should be fine. I'd get a bike with regular pivot brake mounts if you can, because cantis suck.

I rock my superX a lot on road rides, especially when I know there will be a bunch of dirt roads, gravel, etc. I was sick of the crappy braking with cantis, and have been rocking a mini-v brake up front (tektro), which provides 2-3 TIMES the stopping power of the cantis I had.

Next year I plan on buying the high end Super X as my do everything bike. I would only buy a real road bike if I planned on racing. A cross bike with road gearing and tires is plenty fast for how I ride.