Which bike for cyclocross

[oonaff]

Re: Re:

You could do a drop bar conversion of the diamondback with a high rise stem, drop bars, levers and bar end shifters. If you want to be competitive then consider building up a cross bike. You can get a brand new Pake C'muter frame on ebay dirt cheap. Build it up with spares from your parts bin and away you go. Just remember to go with lower gearing like a 46 big ring.

mm sounds like a hybrid is a good option. sloping top tube sounds better
for this kind of terrain.

 

[David B]

I'd go with the Diamondback and stick some skinnier tires with a more CX tread pattern on it.

+1 Mud clearance is quite important. A frame can quickly get clarted up, especially when riding in the woods where leaves form a sort of magnet for mud.

There are pictures of proper old school 'cross riders riding road bikes with caliper brakes. Even seen a picture of Merckx doing this, but it's not much fun having to stop and unclog your wheels every 500m.

Trust me, even having the right tool for the job is no guarantee that that won't happen. My race on the Saturday just gone mostly consisted of dead leaves, dead leaves and more dead leaves. Things were so badly clogged up - even with a modern(ish) CX bike - that just keeping moving was a struggle!

David

 

[oonaff]

do people use those crud catcher s and cheap plastic mud guards which fit to the seat post for training.
or do they just not bother and accept that they will get splattered in mud ?

 

[benseddon]

Re:

I decided in the end to use the diamondback. It was quite muddy out but real fun. Dismounting was a bit of an issue I tore my acl 5 years ago essentially performing the same sort of twisting movement so there is a bit of a mental hurdle to overcome.

Skinnier tyres are definitely needed for next time though. Schwalbe CX 1.35's come recommended, any other suggestions?

Tbh, I have considered doing a drop bar conversion but I'd want to use sti's as opposed to bar end shifters. Maybe a new project for 2015........project frankenback!!

 

[dirttorpedo]

Re:

If you decide to go with STI's I believe you will have to make a lot more changes to the drive train that if you just go with barends. I'm no expert, but I believe the bar ends are more adaptable to mountainbike derailleurs and cranksets. You might find it gets a bit pricy and you'd be better off just buying a used CX bike.

 

[benseddon]

Re:

I spent the other night looking into fitting sti's onto a MTb and reading through "the unofficial drop bar MTb thread"

The stumbling block appears to be the front derailleur. Sti's aren't compatible with a MTb front derailleur due to the cable pulls being different and most road derailleurs are bottom pull whereas MTb derailleurs are top pull.

The simplest thing to do it appears would be to fit a road front mech.

There appear to be enough people who have succeeded to warrant me giving it a go. Don't think the missus would be too happy if another bike turned up.....n+1 and all that. Got to keep the missus sweet!!!!

 

[Johnsqual]

Re:

Cable pull shouldn't matter if you use campag ergopowers - they use a ratchet system instead of full indexing.

Or you could use a barend shifter for the front mech - sounds a bit weird but Pantani used to do something similar with a downtube shifter for his front and an ergopower for the rear. Presumably to save weight, I assume.

Johnny