Frankenbike for cross? Help? tips?

[amyp]

Ooohhhh I'm not that young! I probably look like a 15 year old though haha. has anyone (ages 20+) ever competed with the redline conquest 24 with adults?

[Eden]

Ooohhhh I'm not that young! I probably look like a 15 year old though haha. has anyone (ages 20+) ever competed with the redline conquest 24 with adults?

I have - but my dirt skills are pretty bad.... I think the bike is kind of heavy (and good tires are pretty much impossible to find) for really serious competition, but fine for starting out and seeing if you like the sport - people start on mt bikes sometimes after all. If you did decide to get serious you'd probably end up wanting to look into to something better and that very well might entail going custom. Giant does have a small size cross bike in their line up, but even that might be too big for you.

[zoom-zoom]

Giant does have a small size cross bike in their line up, but even that might be too big for you.

I just looked at it...bummer, the smallest is a 46cm and definitely looks like it would be bigger than the 44cm Redline I'm on (longer top tube and taller standover). Sure would be nice if they wouldn't call a 46cm CX bike an XS, since that's really more like size S territory.

[Eden]

I just looked at it...bummer, the smallest is a 46cm and definitely looks like it would be bigger than the 44cm Redline I'm on (longer top tube and taller standover). Sure would be nice if they wouldn't call a 46cm CX bike an XS, since that's really more like size S territory.

Oy... I could have sworn the last time I looked I thought the XS might just might be small enough, but what I see there now definitely would not fit me.... too big BOO

I have a WARNING about the Redlines.... It is NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE to find tires... I just spent all day looking and the shops around here can't even find them to order from their suppliers. My team shop is going to harass Redline about why in the world they don't order extra tires, since apparently they can get them put on the bikes at the factory, but no one exports any. He's also calling Kona for me (since they make the Jake 24)

[zoom-zoom]

I have a WARNING about the Redlines.... It is NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE to find tires... I just spent all day looking and the shops around here can't even find them to order from their suppliers. My team shop is going to harass Redline about why in the world they don't order extra tires, since apparently they can get them put on the bikes at the factory, but no one exports any. He's also calling Kona for me (since they make the Jake 24)

I think our lbs and my DH figured out that they take wheelchair tires.

[amyp]

hahaha.


i looked at the ridley website. they have an xxs but i don't know how to read the geometry.

[Owlie]

hahaha.


i looked at the ridley website. they have an xxs but i don't know how to read the geometry.

The geometry chart should list a seat tube measurement as well as a top tube measurement.

[Eden]

I think our lbs and my DH figured out that they take wheelchair tires.

Nope - wheel chair tires are iso 540's and the Redline takes iso 520's (though they are both called 24".....) I found this out the hard way this summer when I desperately needed slicks (*both* of my other road bikes were in the shop.....) I found two unmatched tires at a shop and though they both said 24" one was too big. It turned out that one was a wheel chair tire - and a 540. They have too large a diameter. Unless wheelchairs have different wheel size options?

The first time I ordered tires for it I was able to find some BMX tires that fit. I wanted to try some that were less wide. They turned out to be too skinny and I kept falling.... but that is a different story.

[zoom-zoom]

I know we have a set of slicks for the rugrat's bike...I want to say they're Panaracers...? I can ask DH. He and the LBS managed to find *some* sizes that would work.

[zoom-zoom]

I think the Panaracer Pasela tires are the slicks we have. Not sure what the stock knobbies are that come on the bike, but I see Panaracer also has a BMX tire.

[zoom-zoom]

Ooohhhh I'm not that young! I probably look like a 15 year old though haha. has anyone (ages 20+) ever competed with the redline conquest 24 with adults?

Around here the smaller women seem to be on 26er mountain bikes, but mostly because the few small women in the area are also die-hard mountain bikers. If I were small and and wanting to do CX, but not mtn. biking I don't think I'd look at a mountain bike. Even though the Conquest 24 or Kona Jake 24 are heavy bikes, they are still going to be lighter than a comparable mountain bike, most likely. We have a really small Cannondale F5 mountain bike that is positively tank-like (that was my previous mountain bike...we got a good deal on it and I rode it around for a year to see if I even wanted a nicer, better-fitting bike). My son rides around on that, some, but MUCH prefers his CX bike, even on some singletrack. I think because the Redline is a nicer, lighter-weight bike and it's less cumbersome for him on uphills.

A friend of ours' sister is really petite and is considering buying our son's Conquest 24 when he outgrows it. She is in her 30s and wants a CX bike.

Something else to consider might be a Ridley in their 41cm size. I've not looked seriously at Ridleys, since they jump from 41 to 47. I need something midway between those sizes. A friend of ours has a 41 and she's smaller than I. Her road bike is a 44. I think she might be around 5'1-2".