Going to try CX on my mtn bike. Suggestions?

Fatamorgana

Hi.

I thought I'd dip my toe into the CX circuit but prior to buying a dedicated CX bike, I'd use my hard tail mtn bike & see how I liked the experience.

As I understand it, I need to become a member of British Cycling prior to entering any races, booking any events through their web portal.

Kit: V brake 26er, a steel Sunn XCircuit UN from 1999 with about an inch or less of travel on the front forks, no lock-out.

Anyhow, presently shod with NNics on Mavic 317 rims she weighs in at 24lbs.

What would you recommend in terms of 26er tyres please? Cheep & cheerful ideally as if my CX experience goes well, I'll buy a CX specific bike a short order.

Biddon or CamelBak?

Do I lag some pipe padding around the frame for carrying?

Any / all suggestions most welcome as I have yet to even watch a CX event, let alone ride in a race, but that's the plan, enter some in the coming weeks.

tgotb

Fatamorgana wrote:

Hi.

I thought I'd dip my toe into the CX circuit but prior to buying a dedicated CX bike, I'd use my hard tail mtn bike & see how I liked the experience.

As I understand it, I need to become a member of British Cycling prior to entering any races, booking any events through their web portal.

Kit: V brake 26er, a steel Sunn XCircuit UN from 1999 with about an inch or less of travel on the front forks, no lock-out.

Anyhow, presently shod with NNics on Mavic 317 rims she weighs in at 24lbs.

What would you recommend in terms of 26er tyres please? Cheep & cheerful ideally as if my CX experience goes well, I'll buy a CX specific bike a short order.

Biddon or CamelBak?

Do I lag some pipe padding around the frame for carrying?

Any / all suggestions most welcome as I have yet to even watch a CX event, let alone ride in a race, but that's the plan, enter some in the coming weeks.

Very good plan, lots of people start on MTBs. You can enter most events online, and pay a supplement (£3 I think) if you're not a BC member with a licence. BC website (or local league website) should tell you whether entries are accepted on the day, but it is the norm for anything other than a small handful of more "serious" events. I think it's also possible to enter on BC website even as a non-member (again you have to pay the additional £3, unless you enter the novice race.)

Races are an hour or less, so no need for camelback or bidon, especially in the Autumn/Winter.

Don't worry about pipe lagging, you're not going to be carrying the bike very far; the only time you need something like that is for the 3 Peaks where you're carrying it up a mountain.

Hopefully someone else can advise you on MTB tyres; my suggestion would be to start with whatever you have.

cyclingsheep

Would agree with the above and especially if you're entering the novice race definitely no need for a drink as they're only 30mins. No need to buy a pair of tires for one or two races, unless you have some narrow nobblies at home already, run what you brung. I've said it before, be careful, CX is addictive, no matter what level you're at.

andyp

Some good advice (similar to that I gave earlier but which the server lost when I posted it) already.

Day licenses are £3 but if a race is classified as a Go-Race, like the London Summer Series races are, then no license is required.

I wouldn't worry too much about kit yet, just have a go and see how you get on. Hopefully you'll enjoy it!

Fatamorgana

Thanks.
I have a1.9 mud tyre and somewhere a 1.5, so I'll try these I think before spending any ££.
Next two races seem to be either out in Oxfordshire (MX circuit) of down on the Thames Estuary, Davy Down Cross, both of which say you can enter on the day.

I'm in my 50's so am I looking at this category? 12:00 midday. Women/Vet 50+ £11.00 £14.00(on the day).
http://www.easterncross.org.uk/race14-15-6.htm

Thanks.

bryanm

Fatamorgana wrote:

Biddon or CamelBak?

Neither!

Racing 40/50 minutes you don't need it.

andyp

Fatamorgana wrote:

I'm in my 50's so am I looking at this category? 12:00 midday. Women/Vet 50+ £11.00 £14.00(on the day).
http://www.easterncross.org.uk/race14-15-6.htm

Thanks.

Yes, that's right. Davy Down is a good course for a beginner, nothing too tricky although it can get very muddy.

mikpem

I'm going to be at Davy Downs this Sunday for the senior race, I won't quite be there in time for the Vet 50+ race but head down if you get the chance to watch any of the races and get a feel for it.

I started last year after going to watch the race at Basildon, loved the look of it and managed to make it to a few races last season (having a newborn son restricted my availability but now he likes bikes more than me!). This season I'm getting to a lot more, I think I have races for the next 4 weeks!

Eastern cross is pretty friendly, I've spoken to them about a friend having a go in the past and they have said it is fine as long as there are spaces on the day and looking at the entrants list for the 50+ there are about 45 people signed up so should be plenty of spaces on the day.

There is actually a guy on the eastern cross facebook group that has a54cm 'Van Dessel Full Tilt Boogie' demo bike which he is willing to lend to people to try out cross/carbon frame/discs and he will be at Davy Downs on Sunday. You might be able to get hold of him and actually have a 'cross bike to use for the race or at least a practice lap. Let me know if you want his name.

Paul 8v

Lots of people ride mountain bikes in our club CX, there doesn't seem to be a massive advantage or disadvantage to either type of bike so you will be fine. You're right to give it a go before buying a CX bike (You totally should though because you will love it and they're very versatile bikes to boot)

My CX bike was in the shop for our first race so I was riding a big old Lapierre Zesty, I just put on the least aggressive, thinnest tyres I had in the shed. As above you won't need hydration (I'm not sure they allow it anyway and you won't have a chance to drink it!) and you'll be carrying for very short distances so no padding needed (Some courses you won't need to dismount anyway)

Enjoy and have fun, cross is the most "Fun" of all the disciplines as far as I'm concerned :-)

roger_merriman

Cheap fast tyres, could try Rapid Rob's which are old versions of the Racing Ralph.

They are cheap and reasonable fast tyres £10/20 depending. I have them on my old Commute/tow path MTB and been impressed to be honest.

bendertherobot

First cross for me on Sunday. I will be using the Bivio X.

That said, I might, as an experiment, see if the 29er wheels I have on my MTB, shod with 2.25 tyres will fit on there. Purely for research purposes to see if I can create a frankenbike.

Paul 8v

Probably be too tight, especially with mud on them, I doubt even a Cotic escapade (Which has huge clearance) would be able to run those but worth a try

bendertherobot

Aye, probably destined to fail. I will report back later.

bendertherobot

Yeah, too big. I reckon something like 1.9-2.0 might well work.

Interestingly my Archetype 32h road wheel with disc and Uncle John cyclocross tyres weighed (felt) the same as my Whyte 29 er wheels with Maxxis Ikon 2.25 on there.

bendertherobot

Just picking up on this. Saw all sorts yesterday.

The big boys won on Focus/Stevens etc with deep sections and tan wall tubs.

But there were quite a few MTB's knocking round and, to be fair, most had swapped out their 2.4 inch tyres to 33-35c efforts.

One of the more competitive riders was on a MTB/hybrid esque thing with carbon tubs and challenge tyres.

Lots of variation. Saw one bloke with a rack