First season racing next year, so cat5 here I come.

How bad is it? Should I race on my Wilier Cento1, which was over budget, or not? I have an old steel bike w/downtube friction shifters which I suppose I could use.

Thoughts?

you can't be serious about racing with the downtube shifters. I realize it was done for ... well, decades, but still.

Race you Wilier, keep the steel bike for when you upgrade to Cat 4. Cat 4 racers are worse than Cat 5 racers, and far more dangerous.

Yeah but if you race the DT bike you'll look hard as ****.

41. Always painting pictures of hope!

Race what you can replace.

I would probably destroy a significant portion of the CAT 5 field with a 24+ lb downtube shifting bike, especially in crits

Everyone here is eddy merckx and can win till cat 3 apparently. Get on your cruiser to prove a point.

There is your Bozo button, seeing as you are so excited that you can smash a significant portion of a Cat 5 field with a 24+ lbs bike, I am assuming you are of the whippet variety, so you probably don't have a chest to pin that button on. Only in the 41. Starting to think the title of the 41 should be changed from "Road Cycling" to "A bunch of whiney, prissy, blow hards"

I would be saving up pennies and hunting high and low on craigslist and ebay between now and March for something to race that has indexed shifting and costs a lot less than your Cento1.

Any 90s cannondale or trek would be a start.

Actually, MJH2 who is on these forums, built up an aluminum racer. He bought the frame for like $75 on Pricepoint. I made fun of him at first, but seeing how many frames get broken, mostly in the Cat 4 and 1/2/3 races, it might not be such a bad idea. That is of course if you don't have a good shop connection.

CAT 5 is a friggin joke, I helped pull a friend on a breakaway from the first lap and they never even got close

Why own a racing bike and not race it?

another vote for race what you can afford to replace

Absolutely the truth.

How about, "this particular cat 5 race I was in was a joke. However, I don't really know if there are other cat 5 races that are more competive. Because I am a 5 I really don't know much about racing anyway."

I have witnessed 5 races that were the same length as the 3-4 and just as fast, without accidents. It's all for kicks and giggles anyway. Don't take it too seriously. Over in Europe kids race farther and faster than you.

Frames rarely get damaged in races. Wheels, shifters, pedals, rear derailleur get the brunt of it, and even then are often scratched but still useable. Put on cheap wheels & go race.
It has a replaceable hanger, right ? Buy a new one ahead of time if you want, or know where to get it.

From what I've seen, Cat 5 isn't any more dangerous than ather categories, maybe even safer since people don't ride as close to each other. The cat 3s around here are deadly.

Sooooo, don't go to Europe if you can't beat the little kid that tools around the neighborhood on his BMX bike?


On topic: I agree with race what you can replace. That's one of the reasons I got a CAAD9 a few years back. I knew it was durable, but I also knew that it was affordable enough to replace if something happened to it. I've been trying to get one of my friends to try some crits. But one of the reasons he refuses is fear of demolishing his carbon frame.

Another vote for race what you can afford to replace.

The kids that want to be racers (the ones that when they grow up you are now watching on TV) are not tooling around on bmx bikes. Not even close.

BTW...botto told me of (as I recall) the son of a friend of his and his gym class rode the entire Liege-Bastogne-Liege course. It's a lifestyle.

Put another way, the people that run the big teams scout teenage races like scouts in MLB go to high school games. Kids here that want to learn to race go there for that purpose.

https://www.cyclingcenter.com for example.

These kids are racing upwards of 180km. Not doing junior events in a parking lot. And they are racing against athletes that have been racing since they were old enough to ride a bike.

It's a different world....from their numbers, it looks like the center entered about 150 races. Not everone rides every race, but you can race every day over there. Not just on Saturday mornings in an industrial complex.

+1.

The odds are low that you'll break your frame. It happens but not that often.

If replacing your frame would be financially devastating, then you need a cheaper bike.

post your USAC results page.

I'm not sure about "ride what you can replace" since I agree odds are pretty low that you'll destroy your entire bike/frame (it does definitely happen though), but "ride what you can damage" is definitely in order. If you go down even once, you'll scrape up your bars, or if you collide with someone going similar speed, scrape the paint on your frame even if it works fine. Bottom line, be willing to be ready for some minor damage or cosmetic damage at some point.

im thinking one of those bonktown bikes for 800 bucks is going to be the ticket...or the bmc streetfighter...nice aluminum bikes with decent group sets and low cost

It is a CAT5, who cares?