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

[spokewench]

I'm going to be running a set of these on my new 'cross bike this season - mostly because we have a spare set, but also because they are lighter than any of the other wheel sets we have.

After bruising my shoulder last year, I decided I need to lighten the load a little bit this year . Hoping that the new Specialized Tri-Cross frame and carbon parts will do the trick!

SheFly

Re: your bruised shoulder. I've seen a lot of people pad their top tube so it doesn't bruise them so much. Looks kind of funky, but it is cyclocross after all. Just a thought

spoke

[SheFly]

Re: your bruised shoulder. I've seen a lot of people pad their top tube so it doesn't bruise them so much. Looks kind of funky, but it is cyclocross after all. Just a thought

spoke

Lots of people do that, I have seen it to. Of course, that would add weight to my really light bike . I figured out, finally, the proper shouldering technique so that the weight is actually in the crook of my arm vs. completely on my shoulder. It's also amazing the difference a lighter bike makes.

Some of the women on my team, however, are considering 80's style shoulder pads under their jerseys!

SheFly

[velogirl]

I know some women who insert a shoulder pad in their skinsuit. Remember shoulder pads? Don't you wish you kept all the ones you removed during the 80s?

From a technique pov, try shouldering a bit higher (toward your neck) so you place the bike on the meaty part of your shoulder, not on the bone.

Re: your bruised shoulder. I've seen a lot of people pad their top tube so it doesn't bruise them so much. Looks kind of funky, but it is cyclocross after all. Just a thought

spoke

[Eden]

Yeah - I was talking about how much it hurt to shoulder the bike (I have no natural padding on my shoulders so it feels like the darn bike grinds right on my bones!) and one of my team mates said *don't* pad the bike. She said you bruise up and it hurts the first couple of times, but then you get used to it (kind of like breaking your butt into a saddle). If you pad then you never get used to it and you always have a low level of bruising/painfulness.