New bike New discipline, cyclocross.

Love this thread. I went to watch the cycle cross at ripley this year and I have to admit, I've been hankering to give it a go ever since
 
benseddon":svydil5t said:
Love this thread. I went to watch the cycle cross at ripley this year and I have to admit, I've been hankering to give it a go ever since

Get your self you Ilkley on sunday and give it a go, i guarantee you will want to do it again.

26 Oct 14 Ilkley CC Cyclo-Cross

Ilkley Lido & Pool, Denton Road, Ilkley, West Yorkshire, LS29 0BZ
10:30 Youth Non-Ranking £7.00
10:32 Novice Go-Cross 30 mins £7.00
11:30 Under-8 10mins £2.00
11:50 Under-10 15 mins £2.00
12:15 Under-12 15 mins £2.00
13:00 Senior/Junior/Veteran/Women Non-Ranking £12.00
 
I have been given the all clear from the physio to race on sunday.... :D

and in preparation I have fitted some tyres and tubes, after much reading of reviews and general asking about I have fitted some Clements crusade PDX with Vittoria Latex road inner tubes. I have lost 290g in total and I should have a bike that can handle the mud a lot better.
I did go for a ride around the estate to make sure the tyres were seated properly and the pressure feels ok, at 32psi (thats quite low for a 700x33 clincher tyre) everything seem very nice and grippy. not the sort of set up you would use on the road but it should be great for the CX race track. I will let you know how I get on with them later.

Just out of interest I weighed my wheels without the tyres and tubes to see how bad they are. 1146g for the front and 1590g for the back both with cassette, rotas and skewers. No to bad but no great, so Im trying to save up for either some carbon rims and CX-ray spokes but it might be cheaper and easier to get a wheel set from Superstar components. :?: :?: :?:
 
Some crest 29ers on decent ish hubs will save a fair bit of weight. Add some hope rotors and an ultegra or XT cassette (depending on what ratios you want) and you should be set. Can even go tubeless with very little faff.

And 32psi is actually not that low for CX, i've used 1.5 bar before now on clinchers (~22psi) and we very very rarely go over 2 bar, unless it's a rock hard, bone dry rock fest. Then we might go to 2.5bar.
 
Training was very muddy as you might expect and the Clements PDX tyres were fantastic, running them at 30 psi, they really are very good mud tires. I did ended up with a broken bike and not really sure how it happened, bad gear changes probably, I now need a new hanger, chain, rear mech.

Do I go for a MTB or road chain XT, Sram PC1051 or Ultegra?

Look North were there filming us all, so I might be on the telly box :cool:.


This is what riding in the mud does to your bike.






 
Shame about your bike but it does look like you were having fun up to the point where your drivetrain gave up the ghost.

Have you been watching Matt Stephens attempts at cyclocross on GCN??
 
Nice. It always amazes me that the mentalists who invented CX did it without inventing the MTB first.

Its surprising how many of the cycling disciplines require you to be a bit of a nutter ;)

Keep it coming. :LOL:

MTB chain gets my vote.
 
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