Weight Weenies

I always train with my cyclocrossbike on the road during winter (ridley X-fire). I even rode it all year last year. The cx-bike is also very good for rough rides, like on cobblestones etc. The x-fire is a very comfortable bike to ride.

Right now, both my cross bikes have a 50t big ring on them. I've been riding em on gravel road rides. Longest I've been on so far was 55mi/4hrs.

Come Aug or so, at least one's going back to a 46t to do 2x20min intervals on my 'local to me' cross course before race season. Once race season starts up again, both are going back to the cross-sized outer ring. (A bike and backup bike)

Keep in mind a 50t ring feels ~1 tooth smaller than a 53t ring. IOW a 50x11 feels like a 53x12

M

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My only intentions for CX is for fun, and just messing around. My only competitive interest is road (for now). Some great info here, thanks guys.

Will not be doing this until autumn but will definitely take these points into consideration when that time comes. I think the best option would be to have two sets of chain rings to swap depending on what I'll be doing.

alexh wrote:Will not be doing this until autumn but will definitely take these points into consideration when that time comes. I think the best option would be to have two sets of chain rings to swap depending on what I'll be doing.

While you get more new bikes in the fall, there's more bargains on CX bikes now.

...as an added bonus, you can ride the gravel roads all summer to figure out the handling, etc of your new bike.

M

It's got nothing to do with waiting for new bikes, but everything to do with the fact I'm mid-way through building my summer/race bike so have no money

Race CX. Its the most fun you'll have. None of the stress of road racing. Plus you'll come out of the winter feeling better

euan wrote:Race CX. Its the most fun you'll have. None of the stress of road racing. Plus you'll come out of the winter feeling better

I rode XC for years before I switched to road, and never got into it on a competitive level, it's just too much hassle. I don't see the same happening for CX. I just want it for a bit of fun really, to take out for a fun ride on my rest days over the winter. We'll see though, I never planned to get into road competitively and now I'm in a club preparing for a summer of racing...

alexh wrote:A concern is I'm used to a 53/39, and spin out on descents with my 12

I never feel the need to spin anything out, when descending in winter. It's already cold enough just coasting

Edit: Fair enough, I didn't look at your location.

wassertreter wrote:

alexh wrote:A concern is I'm used to a 53/39, and spin out on descents with my 12

I never feel the need to spin anything out, when descending in winter. It's already cold enough just coasting

Refer to rule 5 Also in the South West we don't get proper cold. I only saw snow a few times on the highest points on Dartmoor.