Equipment up to it? Racing on Aksiums and a Compact?

davep123

Hi
I'm going to start racing this year. It's a sad question I know, but is my bike up to it? It's a focus cayo which I really like. I'm just concerned I'll be laughed at with my aksiums, compact and hairy legs. Has anyone else raced with this combination? Do I really need to upgrade my wheels?
Cheers

Kléber

Sounds perfect for a beginner. You'd look more like a prat if you turned up on a Pinarello with Boras for a beginners race.

Go for it.

Mettan

The Cayo's fine, Aksiums are fine for a new racer - wear longs if you're botherd about your legs - nobody will be laughing - many stand there quietly contemplating the race ahead.

JC.152

sounds pretty good for starting racing. Compact might be too small but that'll depend on where your racing and how you race, some people love them and others dont like the little ring being too small

SBezza

You will be fine, I raced the other weekend with my Trek 1.7, £150 Bontrager Race wheels, and a compact, and I was fine, I finished 10th, so beat alot of the guys on very expensive bikes, with expensive wheels. It is the person on the bike that makes the biggest difference.

Yellow Peril

I did a 25mile TT on Aksiums with treaded tyres a couple of weeks ago. I came second from last but that was nothing to do with my wheels or my winter framed TT special. Do I care? no. Will I be doing another 25 next week? you betcha!

davep123

Cheers. This is all very reassuring.

acorn_user

It's a big pity that you even had to ask. The perception is that you need the latest gear to be competitive. I think racers need to work hard to do away with that perception, because it is a barrier to entry. One thing I really enjoy about collegiate cycling is that lots of people race awful bikes. One of our riders even has a Walmart bike.

@OP your equipment is fine. In fact, it's probably somewhat better than the equipment people were using 20 years ago. So get in there, ride safely, and enjoy yourself

davep123

The problem is that everyone I know who races has very expensive shiny bikes and shiny legs.

acorn_user

I know... I wasn't saying you were a fool or anything; just that the perception of what it takes to race is out of whack with what it actually takes. I did a criterium in Tennessee where I was only rider without both a top end carbon frame and a top end groupset. Quite a few riders had deep section carbon wheels too. It's kind of intimidating, and quite pointless. When racing with other students, I've raced against people on old 10 speed touring bikes before. If they have the motor, they do fine

Slow1972

A good engine on a cheap bike with a compact and askiums will beat a poor engine on a bling bike

I started racing last year on a £400 giant SCR, Askiums and maxxis detonator training tyres, you may get the odd tool who gives your bike and hairy legs a snobby sneer when you line up at the start, but then you have the last laugh if he rolls over the line behind you

If people can afford good gear to ride cat 3/4 races, fair do's, but please don't think you actually need that gear to hold your own in the race. The other issue is if you buy an expensive bike and find its not for you its an expensive way to find out.. you only have to check out the classifieds in Cycling weekly to see there's plenty of one race or one sportive riders out there.

The only practical comment I would make is that you may have to be spinning away to keep up on the faster sections of an undulating circuit with a compact

felgen

Your equipment sounds fine - more than fine in fact. Dont rush to change it, but its very tempting to want to get something much better - bling is very addictive! Ironically I actually downgraded my wheels when I got the bike for something a litle more resilient but a hell of a lot heavier. It doesn't seem to impede me too much. If you feel have to get something which may make a difference, get some decent tyres. I got pro race 3's which were 300 grams a pair lighter than the training tyres I was using and stick like glue round corners which will give you more confidence. I hit 53mph when I was descending off Mount Palomar in February and was pretty happy doing so... :twisted:

As for your compact - if you think you might run out of gears, and you have a 12-25 casette, then change to a 11-23 instead, it will give you just about the same gears as a 12-25 on a standard chainring, and if it gets hilly, just to back to the 12-25. Compacts are generally lighter than their equivalent standard chaninset too (well mine is) so you could well be saving weight by using it.

If you want to get quicker - train, get your body fat down. If its not muscle, its not helping propel you and is just dead weight. Since I got 'the bug' again last year I lost 13kgs the difference is very noticeable.

HTH

p.s. hairy roadie here too!

Slow1972

+1 for race tyres

davep123

Thanks for all your posts. You've save me shed loads of money and the cost of a possible divorce for having shaved legs and buying expensive wheel.
Pro race 3s ordered at bargain price of £22 each.
Cheers

felgen

Since my post above I have found out you can get a 11-25 shimano 105 casette - this really is the best of both worlds - you would have the equivalent of 53x11.7 top gear which if you can spin that our then thats pretty amazing! Obviously this will spread the ratios a little wider but not so much as to make it annoying. I will be getting one of these on my new wheelset later this year (yes the wheels make the biggest difference after the tyres - but get used to the tyres first, and work on the engine hard as well!)

Glad you saw sense and got the tyres - they will make the single biggest difference to your bike. I think you have a FSA gossamer compact - this is over 100 grams lighter than the standard gossamer so keep it for now.

enjoy!

Ash_

Back in the dim and distant past when I was a junior, we had to race on restricted gears - to protect our fragile little knees I suppose. Anyway, the maximum 'development' (distance bike travelled with one crank revolution) we were allowed was 7.93 metres. This equated to a 52x14 back then.
Almost always I was racing against 2nd / 3rd cats (no 4ths back then) and never found I wasn't competitve through lack of bigger gears.

I wasn't competitve for lots of other reasons though. Crapness being the main one on most occasions...

Anyway, my point is this - If your biggest gear is 50x13, your 'development' is 8.21 metres, so you should be all right with that. You might not win the sprint, but your compact chainset or hairy legs won't stop you being involved in the racing, and most importantly, won't stop you from enjoying it.

Good luck!

John C.

Thanks for all that, I'm contemplating my first race on Shimano 550s and a tripple chainset. I also have hairy legs.
I think the wheels are better than I am, the fact it's a tripple won't matter and I couldn't stand the piss taking from my wife and daughter if I shaved my legs and came last which is a distinct possibility .

davep123

John C. wrote:

Thanks for all that, I'm contemplating my first race on Shimano 550s and a tripple chainset. I also have hairy legs.
I think the wheels are better than I am, the fact it's a tripple won't matter and I couldn't stand the wee-wee taking from my wife and daughter if I shaved my legs and came last which is a distinct possibility .

See you at Boroughbridge and Croft Tlis?

StrangelyBrown

I'm in exactly the same position - same bike, same wheels, same legs, license on it's way, no bloody idea... uh oh.

If you get stuffed then it's only to be expected; I mean, look at the bike/wheels/legs But any scalp you take will be very sweet. In fact, why not make a point of keeping the gear and just get faster. Call it psychological warefare

mididoctors2

its all good apart from the hairy legs...

cheap but decent bike is fine infact good reverse psychology.

hairy legs.... is a no no

leguape

Anyone who tells you you need a bigger gear than 50x12 for 4th cat racing needs to have a think about what they're saying. Sheldon Brown's gear calculator has you travelling at nearly 63km/h at 120 rpm. There are very few situations in a 4th cat race that you're going to either be able or need to do that from my experience.

wildmoustache

leguape wrote:

Anyone who tells you you need a bigger gear than 50x12 for 4th cat racing needs to have a think about what they're saying. Sheldon Brown's gear calculator has you travelling at nearly 63km/h at 120 rpm. There are very few situations in a 4th cat race that you're going to either be able or need to do that from my experience.

there are very situations in which I can imagine doing 120rpm! What makes you think that cadence is normal, and some people wouldn't be better with a larger gear than 50x12? My minimum max. gear for racing would be 50x11 or 53x12 on a standard double.

Kléber

Guys like Boonen and Pettachi sprint in 53x11 when it's flat and fast. These people can do climbs on the big ring that even amateur elites use the inner ring for. So 53x12 is fine for a beginner or lower-level rider

wildmoustache

Kléber wrote:

Guys like Boonen and Pettachi sprint in 53x11 when it's flat and fast. These people can do climbs on the big ring that even amateur elites use the inner ring for. So 53x12 is fine for a beginner or lower-level rider

Kleber - I agree with you on 53x12 ... but not with leguape on 50x12 ... the notion of 120rpm is frankly a bit a ridiculous ... some of us might sprint at that cadence, but very few i suspect.

jmaccyd

Race on a compact and it works out fine. As for the wheels I always think you should race on equipment that you can afford to loose in the (hopefully) unlikely event of a stack. Always fairly stunned to turn up at Chippers to see Campag Boras and the like! As for the legs get over it and get the shaver out. Your mates will eventually get fed up of ripping you....well after several years anyway!

StrangelyBrown

Will let you know next week - have first race on Saturday on same setup... gulp.

cirlam

120rpm isn't actually that much....very easily obtainable. The abilty to spin extremely fast during a crit is very useful - the sudden changes of pace usually means that if you have to shift all the time, you can lose contact with the top riders, so i usually do spinning intervals on the rollers that can have me spinning at up to 180rpm.

get a cadence sensor and fit it for a crit, i bet quite a few of you guys will hit 120 a few times during the race

wildmoustache

cirlam wrote:

120rpm isn't actually that much....very easily obtainable. The abilty to spin extremely fast during a crit is very useful - the sudden changes of pace usually means that if you have to shift all the time, you can lose contact with the top riders, so i usually do spinning intervals on the rollers that can have me spinning at up to 180rpm.

get a cadence sensor and fit it for a crit, i bet quite a few of you guys will hit 120 a few times during the race

120rpm is fast, the point I was making was that I would not want to have to hit 120rpm in my max gear to travel at 60kph ... it's a crit ... it's flatt(ish) ... certainly not something you need a compact for ... why not go in with a 53 x 11 /12 ???

nolf

Wildmoustache, if you have a choice, I agree I wouldn't go for the compact either. I've raced up 15% climbs (BUCS championship road race 2008) and not needed a compact.

But I wouldn't fork out for a brand new crankset just for a TLI race! If you've already got a standard double then fit it, if not then don't bother. Simple as.

And don't get nervous about the kit or equipment of others. I've seen guys with full carbon, dura ace and lightweight standard wheelsets get dropped by a guy on a singlespeed!

Have fun!

wildmoustache

nolf wrote:

Wildmoustache, if you have a choice, I agree I wouldn't go for the compact either. I've raced up 15% climbs (BUCS championship road race 2008) and not needed a compact.

But I wouldn't fork out for a brand new crankset just for a TLI race! If you've already got a standard double then fit it, if not then don't bother. Simple as.

And don't get nervous about the kit or equipment of others. I've seen guys with full carbon, dura ace and lightweight standard wheelsets get dropped by a guy on a singlespeed!

Have fun!

yep, you're right. i am currently building up a cheapish race bike (well, under £1500) that will be near 7kg but half the price of many other rigs out there ... part of the reason is precisely the reverse psychology advantage!

nick hanson

Don't worry about your gearing too much.
Back in the 80's when i was racing,52x13 was normal,& this was plenty big enough,even when going through & off with Wayne Randal !
People read about Boonen etc sprinting on an 11 sprocket,but believe me,by the time a mere mortal got that sort of gear going,the leaders would have finished the race already!
Hairy legs...immaterial
Strength of mind when suffering is the only thing that counts.