Hello,
I'm thinking (well, obsessing) about building a bike that can cope better with the mud on my local trails. Parts of the trails are shared with horse riders, and get pretty churned up, even in spring & summer. I also have to ride sections with lots of shallow ruts coated in slippery mud. Challenging but you fall off a lot.
I currently ride a Ritchey Swiss cross with One One Midge dirt drops. Lowest gear is 26/28. I love it but I want to see if I could build a more specific mud bike.
Three ideas:
Cyclocross frame with wider dirt drops. Maybe something like Soma Gators. For tyres I would contine the cyclocross philosophy that narrower tyres (+/-33 mm) dig in and cut through the mud. Would use lower gearing to help with this, like 27/36 or 27/40.
Monstercross: Have seem the Black Mountain Cycles Monstercross that takes up to 50mm tyres. Really nice bike and good value. But would tyres like this be a bad compromise: less dig in than and less grip than MTB tyres?
Dirt Drop 26er: Would allow for wider and more grippy tyres. I've seen a 51cm MTB frame for sale 2nd hand. Top tube is probably 58-59cm. About the right size for me normally, but would this be too big if I put dirt drop bars on (do you need a much shorter TT for dirt drops?).
Thanks for any ideas.
Johnny
I'm thinking (well, obsessing) about building a bike that can cope better with the mud on my local trails. Parts of the trails are shared with horse riders, and get pretty churned up, even in spring & summer. I also have to ride sections with lots of shallow ruts coated in slippery mud. Challenging but you fall off a lot.
I currently ride a Ritchey Swiss cross with One One Midge dirt drops. Lowest gear is 26/28. I love it but I want to see if I could build a more specific mud bike.
Three ideas:
Cyclocross frame with wider dirt drops. Maybe something like Soma Gators. For tyres I would contine the cyclocross philosophy that narrower tyres (+/-33 mm) dig in and cut through the mud. Would use lower gearing to help with this, like 27/36 or 27/40.
Monstercross: Have seem the Black Mountain Cycles Monstercross that takes up to 50mm tyres. Really nice bike and good value. But would tyres like this be a bad compromise: less dig in than and less grip than MTB tyres?
Dirt Drop 26er: Would allow for wider and more grippy tyres. I've seen a 51cm MTB frame for sale 2nd hand. Top tube is probably 58-59cm. About the right size for me normally, but would this be too big if I put dirt drop bars on (do you need a much shorter TT for dirt drops?).
Thanks for any ideas.
Johnny
