Rich

As in the MTB section, as we have an opportunity to post pictures on the site, check this one out of me and my Sunn Cycloss...

Any other photo's out there?

Cheers..................Rich

velo

Nice photo. I've always wanted to try cyclocross, but I usually just hit the road in the winter.

velo

P.S. Nice headband! I've got the same one. Don't you like it?

Rich

Velo,

Give it a go mate...I've heard it's alot more friendly than road racing, and some moutain biking events.

Yeah, the sweatband is great, but haven't used it yet this season...urm...because my season hasn't started yet...urm...:blush:

Hehe

Rich

Richard D

Having seen the photo I can see what you mean about your avatar

Richard

Rich

I told ya!

Richard D

Rich - what's the difference between cyclo-cross and commuting through Kent?

Richard

Rich

Hehe...can't wait till the snow comes to our part of the world!!! Won't that be a heap of fun???

Rich

Rich

Here's my latest Cross bike to show off...I'm thinking of stripping it back to bear Aluminium and putting on some white decals..hehe, also need to fix that flatty...

Cheers

Rich

fubar5

Rich, what kind of trails do you ride a Cyclo-Cross bike on?

Rich

Hi Fuby,

I'm currently commuting on my Cross bike to work...but in theory, you can ride a Cross bike almost anywhere a Mountainbike can go.

I'm not too sure I'd like to tackle the Kamakazi downhill on it though

Rich

sscyco

Here's mine. I use it for just about everthing. I have taken it off road 2 times but with the 44X16 gear it hurts a bit. Mine looks a bit different than the pic - black bars, eggbeaters, flite ti, titec post, road tires (for the summer).

velocipedio

I've posted this elsewhere, but what the heck...

Rich

That looks like a great bike mate! Quite an unusual frameset...is it Cro Mo or Aluminium?

Thanks for sharing

Rich

sscyco

It's aluminium with a carbon fiber fork. The seat and chain stays are extreamly curvy, and that makes for a suprisingly comfy ride.
Joe

Rich

It'll be interesting to see where cross bike design will go from here...what with new materials and frame designs, I wonder if one day we'll see a full susser cross bike coming along in the not too distant future!

Take it easy

Rich

Alan Perkins

I'm thinking the next step is brakes, specifically super light discs on front (or both) first.

As far as frame technology, I think steel will catch alum as the lightweight leader (almost does today) keeping cross bikes way, way light.

Rich

Hi Alan,

I've seen a couple of bikes last season running disks...seems to make alot of sence to me

It'll be interesting to see what's new this season. If I see anything this side of the pond I'll let you guys know!

Ride hard.

Rich

RacerX

Kelly has the Knobby X disc thats coming out. With the new XTR, disc will become standard for cross. Mark my words!

Joe Gardner

Cannondale has a new CX bike with Disc breaks. Looks like a sweet bike.

https://www.cannondale.com/bikes/03/cusa/model-3XR1.html

Rich

Sure looks sweet Joe!

What with MTB's going the disk way, it wasn't long before the Cross world was going to catch on.

I wonder if it'll ever happen in the road world??

Rich

Joe Gardner

I don't see any advantage for disc's for road riding. I'm sure somebody will try, but i doubt it will catch on. Not enough advantages, and weight would be a bit high for most.

Alan Perkins

Just this last weekend, I noticed several K2 'Cross bikes with disc brakes.....

RacerX

IF discs become light enough, the advantages are pretty overwhelming for road bikes. The pluses for Cross are obvious but I can see big improvements for full carbon rims and tubulars where braking can heat the glue and the tire can roll off. Plus the poor braking on carbon surfaces.
More modulation and control and obviously better wet weather braking where rim brakes are basically non-functional for the first few grabs.
Shorter, more controlable braking distances.
For racing, I could see discs in Paris-Roubaix or for those long, high speed descents (assuming the discs were equal in weight to regular brakes) where the full carbon tubulars can be probematic.

Downsides:
The switchover for those that have invested alot in the current wheelsets.
Possible aerodynamics- but discs maybe more aero, who knows?
How the weight at the hub affects performance.

Rich

I was wondering about this Racer,

Could disk brakes on Road bike be smaller than on downhill rigs/xc mountain bikes?

If they could, then they'd be lighter, more areodynamic etc...

I can see the problem with current investments in carbon technology in wheelsets, but Mavic/Shimano already have the technical know how, and it might not be difficult to make the cross over to raod designs.

Mmmmm, interesting.

Rich

RacerX

yeah, I was thinking the same thing-smaller rotors for road bikes. The only problem with that though is this:

Road bikes hit much higher speeds than a mountian bike. The brakes need to work well at 60+mph without glazing or fade. Experience with discs will tell you the larger diameter rotor gives you more stopping power.
The smaller rotor might require a bigger/heavier caliper to compensate.

Then again a 700c wheel is spinning slower than a 26" wheel at any given speed so maybe a smaller rotor with a nice, light caliper would do just fine.

My guess would be it would be just as aero because a disc has almost no frontal area. You would have smoother airflow around the fork crown (where the caliper used to be) and the disc caliper would "draft" behind the fork leg it was mounted to. But who knows, maybe at high speed the disc will act like a sail and become twitchy in crosswinds... alot of R&D before the ideal road disc comes out for road.

Cross is a bit different and I think the "road" versions of the AVID discs combined with the new XTR hubs will allow a sub-19 pound race bike. I really don't see any reason not to go full disc for muddy, wet cross races at this point. I think the end of 2003 into 2004 is going to see huge influxes of road disc brakes.