Who's ready for cross season to start???

[Drtgirl]

I am both excited and nervous! I just picked up my bike today and took for a short spin before it got dark. It is so much fun to ride! Tomorrow I'm taking a "cyclocross 101" clinic...that is going to be interesting

[Eden]

I've actually borrowed the dinky bike for a little while to see if it will work for me or not.... it definitely would need some modifications, its really tiny. I put a longer stem and my seatpost/saddle on it this afternoon and took an hour long spin. Most of it was on the road, but I put in a bit of playing around in the grass too. It felt pretty darn zippy, feels like it flies up hills, but that could be the really fast spin from the 155 cranks fooling me too...... wish I had a speedo on there this afternoon.
so there's a bunch of pros and cons..
pro - "adult" sized cross bikes are pretty much all to big for me, at least I could modify this one to fit....
con - tiny wheels could be quite a disadvantage, they are 24"ers - that's even smaller than 650's. I'm not even sure that there's much selection in tires or replacement wheels in this size. pro though.... I'm not sure I could manage a cross dismount/mount with 700c wheels - not sure my feet would clear the wheel. It seems like it would be relatively easy with these little wheels.
con - I cannot get my whole arm through the frame - I certainly can pick it up and carry it, but its a bit akward as my elbow hits the BB
We'll see. I'll probably have my coach look at it to see if I'm crazy or not for considering this.

[han-grrl]

I would love to hear about your clinic - was wondering whether something like that existed around here, still digging!!

I am both excited and nervous! I just picked up my bike today and took for a short spin before it got dark. It is so much fun to ride! Tomorrow I'm taking a "cyclocross 101" clinic...that is going to be interesting

[Drtgirl]

I would love to hear about your clinic - was wondering whether something like that existed around here, still digging!!

There is a local company here called Cycle U. They put on clinics, offer coaching services, bike fitting, etc.

The clinic was 2 hours and covered just the basics- dismounts, re-mounts, shouldering, etc. Most of us were first-timers and the setting was very relaxed and supportive.

Maybe you could ask a local team to put on a clinic??

[Eden]

So I'm not the type that usually names bike - cars etc., but I've been calling this the dinky bike or dinky for short and it seems to have stuck. I have decided to buy it - To get a cross bike that *really* fits right I'd have to go custom. Small can be modified, too big not so much. Until I see how much I like doing this, I'm not prepared to spend the $2,500 - $3,000 it would take to go there. The scary thing is that except for the size of the wheels its not too much different from my road bike. Guess that is telling about how short I am.....
(oh - and I found out that there are 24" BMX race wheels so I do have a bit of choice for decent tires and they are cheap to boot - like $15-$20 each cheap)
I've missed Cycle U's cross clinic and there's not another one for a while, but there are drop in clinics at Woodland park - taught by the #1 cross rider in Washington too, so I'm going to give that a try.

[Drtgirl]

So I'm not the type that usually names bike - cars etc., but I've been calling this the dinky bike or dinky for short and it seems to have stuck. I have decided to buy it - To get a cross bike that *really* fits right I'd have to go custom. Small can be modified, too big not so much. Until I see how much I like doing this, I'm not prepared to spend the $2,500 - $3,000 it would take to go there. The scary thing is that except for the size of the wheels its not too much different from my road bike. Guess that is telling about how short I am.....
tires and they are cheap to boot - like $15-$20 each cheap)
I've missed Cycle U's cross clinic and there's not another one for a while, but there are drop in clinics at Woodland park - taught by the #1 cross rider in Washington too, so I'm going to give that a try.

I also went with a smaller bike instead of the larger one.

I know there is a cycle U clinic on Sept 8 and a women's only on the 19th. The Woodland park ones sound great but they're at 7am on weekdays. Doesn't work for me since I start work at 7.

[cwodiva]

Eden,
You are going to have so much fun on that bike! That's great news about the bmx tires.


Ladies,

What kind of wheels/tires are you running? I really want to get a new set and get rid of my crappola old road bike set, but I don't want to spend an armload of money either. Something middle of the road nice, durable (I ride my cross bike a lot on the trails around here since they are not techncial at all, as well as on the road), and fun to race on.


Thanks!

[velogirl]

Ladies,

What kind of wheels/tires are you running? I really want to get a new set and get rid of my crappola old road bike set, but I don't want to spend an armload of money either. Something middle of the road nice, durable (I ride my cross bike a lot on the trails around here since they are not techncial at all, as well as on the road), and fun to race on.


Thanks!

I run Bontrager XXX Lite Carbon Tubular wheels with Tufo Flexus tires for races.

My training wheels are whatever extra 700c wheels I've got sitting in the closet. For training, I prefer a 32 spoke wheel (for strength) with an aero rim.

I see a lot of Mavic Ksyriums out there at the races.

[Eden]

I also went with a smaller bike instead of the larger one.

I know there is a cycle U clinic on Sept 8 and a women's only on the 19th. The Woodland park ones sound great but they're at 7am on weekdays. Doesn't work for me since I start work at 7.

yeah I didn't want to wait until the 19th and 7am is fine for me - I figure the classes should be small too since it is such an odd time. ( I don't see the class on the 8th?)