CX pits checklist

othello

My son moves up to the U14s this year, and I'm going to be on pit duties for the first time.

Apart from the obvious spare bike/wheels (he is going to use his siblings bike as a spare) what do I need?

A couple of buckets with water and some brushes? I guess some cheap soft brushes would do the trick.

I might pick up a portable washer at some point.

fat daddy

pokey brushes .. ie stiffer brushes you can poke places.

you will want to get thick claggy mud out of pedals, from between brakes and forks, from between forks and wheel and out of the rear derailleur

cable ties, insulation tape, gaffa tape

imposter2.0

othello wrote:

My son moves up to the U14s this year, and I'm going to be on pit duties for the first time.

Apart from the obvious spare bike/wheels (he is going to use his siblings bike as a spare) what do I need?

A couple of buckets with water and some brushes? I guess some cheap soft brushes would do the trick.

I might pick up a portable washer at some point.

Outside of the national trophies, you probably won't need anything. Very few of the 14s in our league even have a spare bike.

othello

Imposter wrote:

othello wrote:

My son moves up to the U14s this year, and I'm going to be on pit duties for the first time.

Apart from the obvious spare bike/wheels (he is going to use his siblings bike as a spare) what do I need?

A couple of buckets with water and some brushes? I guess some cheap soft brushes would do the trick.

I might pick up a portable washer at some point.

Outside of the national trophies, you probably won't need anything. Very few of the 14s in our league even have a spare bike.

We are going to do a few National Trophies for the experience, and for those we can make use of club mates jet wash.

I'm conscious that pitting is something I have no experience with, and its an opportunity for us both to learn!

Pross

Overalls and wellies!

tgotb

Bent spoke for fishing course tape and other debris out of cassettes, and a set of hex keys.

As others have suggested, don't go overboard at league level; you don't want him to be "that kid" with the over-keen parent! U14 races are only 30 mins, and run on a relatively fresh course, so he's unlikely to be changing bikes much except for mechanicals; complex mechanicals are going to take too long to fix anyway, so focus on being able to fix the simple ones.

For bike washing, you need:
Pressure washer
Work stand
Old pair of handlebars to hang the bike on the work stand
Stiff dishwashing brush
Something for poking debris out of pedals
Old hand towel/chamois/rag
Aerosol chain lube

othello

TGOTB wrote:

As others have suggested, don't go overboard at league level; you don't want him to be "that kid" with the over-keen parent!

I'm definitely not going to be the over-keen parent!

veryslowtwitch

Well done to OP for helping out but cx is becoming a bit of an arms race and all the pits crap does take some of the enjoyment out of it. A lot of people now have petrol driven power washers. I like the single bike ethos and before your U14 racing gets out of control have a look at this http://www.islabikes.co.uk/info-hub/one-bike-cross. I think this would work very well especially for the younger riders. No-one want to set up a full pits crew for a ten minute U10 race!
I'm going to ask our organisers if they would do a one bike category.

cyclingsheep

veryslowtwitch wrote:

Well done to OP for helping out but cx is becoming a bit of an arms race and all the pits crap does take some of the enjoyment out of it. A lot of people now have petrol driven power washers. I like the single bike ethos and before your U14 racing gets out of control have a look at this http://www.islabikes.co.uk/info-hub/one-bike-cross. I think this would work very well especially for the younger riders. No-one want to set up a full pits crew for a ten minute U10 race!
I'm going to ask our organisers if they would do a one bike category.

I saw this last year and think it's a great idea. Cyclocross rightly gets great praise for being an entry level version of our sport but if it becomes about spare bikes and having a crew at the youngsters level then we are in danger of losing this aspect.

othello

To offer some balance, I've been taking my kids CX racing for 5 years and in that time I've never seen an U10/U12 pit or parents running a pit for that age category. Even with some pretty 'dedicated' parents!

tgotb

I'm not sure I've ever seen a U10/12 race where there was a pit on the course, so technically you can't help them at all. There's obviously a bit of a blind eye turned to parents helping the younger riders with dropped chains etc, but that's about it.

From U14 upwards, I guess the key is whether everyone else is already doing it. If most riders have a spare bike and pit crew (as they might at trophy races), there's little harm in joining in; what you don't want is to be the person driving the arms race. If everyone else is struggling around with one bike and your kid wins because they had two bikes and a pit crew, it's a bit of a hollow victory...

That said, I always take the full kit, pressure washer etc to muddy league races these days, for the simple reason that cleaning fresh mud off 3 bikes at the venue, in daylight, is a lot easier than cleaning dried mud off 3 bikes at home, in the dark...

VamP

Worse still, imagine your kid having two bikes and pit crew, and still not winning. Lot of pressure to heap on young shoulders.

devhads

My son also moves up to U14 this year. His race in the Central league will be directly before mine so he'll be lucky if I even watch it as I'll be getting ready, Eastern league there's a race in between but I doubt I'll be spending it in the pits. He's only got one bike and he won't be having a pit bike until he's tall enough to ride mine, which at the rate he's going will probably be by the end of the season!

Supernaut

VamP wrote:

Worse still, imagine your kid having two bikes and pit crew, and still not winning. Lot of pressure to heap on young shoulders.

Depends on the circumstances. My daughter comes stone last in U14 each week but has a pit crew (me) and the full jetwash kit because it's already in the pits there ready for my teammates and I later in the day. She has a spare bike too but that's only to save work on my behalf. There's zero expectation on her to do well either from me or anyone else.

othello

Supernaut wrote:

Depends on the circumstances. My daughter comes stone last in U14 each week but has a pit crew (me) and the full jetwash kit because it's already in the pits there ready for my teammates and I later in the day. She has a spare bike too but that's only to save work on my behalf. There's zero expectation on her to do well either from me or anyone else.

Well said

VamP

Supernaut wrote:

Depends on the circumstances.

You are right, it does.

VamP

devhads wrote:

My son also moves up to U14 this year. His race in the Central league will be directly before mine so he'll be lucky if I even watch it as I'll be getting ready, Eastern league there's a race in between but I doubt I'll be spending it in the pits. He's only got one bike and he won't be having a pit bike until he's tall enough to ride mine, which at the rate he's going will probably be by the end of the season!

Hope to see you at a few CL races this year - mainly likely to target the Saturday ones. Good luck to J in the U14s, proper racing!

devhads

VamP wrote:

devhads wrote:

My son also moves up to U14 this year. His race in the Central league will be directly before mine so he'll be lucky if I even watch it as I'll be getting ready, Eastern league there's a race in between but I doubt I'll be spending it in the pits. He's only got one bike and he won't be having a pit bike until he's tall enough to ride mine, which at the rate he's going will probably be by the end of the season!

Hope to see you at a few CL races this year - mainly likely to target the Saturday ones. Good luck to J in the U14s, proper racing!

Cheers VamP. He'll need it, he's as enthusiastic as ever but it's a big step up.

Hopefully get to catch up, I should be doing some CL. I hear you had a chance encounter in the Pyrenees!

VamP

devhads wrote:

Cheers VamP. He'll need it, he's as enthusiastic as ever but it's a big step up.

Hopefully get to catch up, I should be doing some CL. I hear you had a chance encounter in the Pyrenees!

It is a big step up, but there is a lot of value in that kind of learning, and racing against stronger riders.

The Pyrenean Encounter was too surreal for words. Was great to see them all!