63 replies to this topic

[McTufferton]

^^^ I'm having disc envy.  Excited to finally see one in the wild.

[Beeg]

Disc brakes are horrible and no one should switch to them.

[Br.]

1.  2x20min intervals on gravel at least once a week; training on a heavy aluminum cross bike with 48T, racing on a light carbon cross bike with 46T
2.  Food Poisoning
3.  Cannondale Super-X.  Best bike I've ever owned; eating almost as much for breakfast as I do for long road rides/races

[FreeAwesome]

1. Disc brakes. plenty of mud/debris clearance. One gear.   Even the races last year that were wet, but not muddy. I saw alot of grass accumulating into peoples frames/brakes/drivetrains.
2. Fast low tread front and rear. Get a little bit of extra meat up front, it helps(pun maybe intended). MTB geometry with drop bars in a cx race. It can work, but is not ideal.
3. Plenty of mud clearance. Steep geometry. Staying in the drops. Jameson hand-ups by someone dressed as a pencil.

side note.  Almost all the bike manufactures that are coming out with disc brake cx bikes seem to be forgetting that decent mud clearance is awesome! Give me a bike that has room to fit 700 hundo x 40 or even 38's, disc tabs, and with a ss option......I'm sold.

[millerclimb]

1. What has worked- Wide-rim tubulars at 20-24psi. Practicing turning. Using random university/urban settings for dis-mounting/running/mounting practice. Lots of rice, potatoes, pasta, and pancakes.

2. What hasn't worked- Electronic stuff. New stuff in the middle of the season. Emulating inappropriately. Making excuses to myself either in races or in trying to balance family/work/riding. Focusing too much on V02 work. Focusing too much on aerobic work.

3. What I swear by- Shimano pedals. Admitting that I 'know' very little. Constantly shifting focus from the big picture to the small and back. Shorter stems, longer headtubes, and a more upright position than a road bike.

[Aaron Koch]

1. What's worked: I still like SRAM, Crank Brothers pedals, and Avid Shorty Ultimates, openers, Endurox R4 and recovery in general. SSCX is AWESOME in gnarly mud. If you can get a proper chain guide 1x10 is awesome for CX. BEER EBB30.

2. What hasn't worked: deep carbon rims carry too much mud and I'm always afraid of cracking them. A spoke breaking off and getting jammed into the cassette, sand filling the inside of my shifter. I used to really like KMC chains and Shimano cassettes, but the last couple Ultegra cassettes I've had have sucked. I'm on SRAM's cheapest cassettes and chains and they're quiet and shift flawlessly.

3. What I swear by: Training with power. Warming up and hitting the first lap very hard.

ADD ON 4. What's new this year? All wide tubular aluminum rims and Shimano hubs; I'm trying to standardize everything so I don't have to adjust anything when I want different tires. Quarq instead of Powertap so I can race with power AND tubulars. Limus and Trigger tubs are new this year.

Edited by Aaron Koch, 20 August 2012 - 03:22 PM.

[Rodgers]

Beeg, on 17 August 2012 - 09:12 AM, said:

Disc brakes are horrible and no one should switch to them.

Yes they are horrible - dont waste your money.... matter of fact anyone running brakes period should just take them off and use their feet to stop, besides your faster if you dont brake anyway.  Just sayin'

[FreeAwesome]

So Rodgers I know your being silly when you say that and I certainly approve, but for those who are on the fence between Disc and Canti and Mini-Vs then this is what I noticed last year.  If the conditions are dry and you have nothing to worry about then jam along with canti's/mini-v's/disc's whatever. Now in the knarly conditions say Mount Pleasant  for example the BB7's I had were awesome.  Dan Miller(correct me if i'm wrong) maybe it was somebody else, but at Mt. P. I think I remember your rear canti brake quick release coming detached because of all the muck then making your rear brake useless. Also, after the state cx championship in KC I remember a few riders bikes getting so gunked up because of thick mud and grass at the canti brakes/posts that they couldn't physically turn neither front or back wheel until they hosed it out. With mini-v's, and many swear by them, they do have better stopping power then traditional canti's. However they do have less mud clearance then canti's, but do have(and this is what I like) a more compact design so you no longer run the risk of shredding your leg skin off if you miss a remount. I've seen pics of that on blogs, not cool.  Also, with my disc brakes last year, the brake pads became we'll say "seasoned" or some may say "contaminated" just enough to slow me down while braking light to half strength grip. But they would not lock up causing me to loose traction unless I really got a fist full of lever. Just like antilock brakes. I bring that up, because that is also one argument I've had with the disc vs. canti debate. When canti's get just wet enough they slow you down enough, but don't lock up causing one to loose control or traction.
************* So pick your poison. Are you a fair weather cx'er where you will show up for the first handful of nice dry races? Then rock the Canti's. W.T.F. Go O.G.!  Are you ready to race every weekend sept-jan no matter sun, sleet, rain, snow, and you still rock the same canti brake studded steed from before cyclocross became all the rage? Then PARTY man! Go for broke. Paint the town red.  Represent those canti's and or switch it up and try the Mini V's with your florescent skinsuit and neon yellow Mavic shoes. Its cool. Or are you new to the sport, but have ambition to push your body to the ultimate limit that a 45 minute epic cx race will push you to and want your bike to get bawged down as little as possible when you stroll into the nasty weather races? Try a frame with f'ing disc brakes. It'll be cool man. Then you can just complain about how you didn't let yourself recover enough from last weeks race or you could have won with your new disc brake cx bike if only you had gotten a better starting position at the gate but were forced behind the primitives with god forbid "CANTILEVER" brakes and you were also still waiting on your new hydro Di2 11speed lever/disc brakes to come into the shop, but they won't be in until next week.  Or lastly, like what Rodgers said, go brakeless shave some grams. Bmxer's and fixie riders have been doin' it for years now.Why are we so slow to catch on? But what do I know, I've only raced one season of cx. Maybe if you put on make-up and perfume and go ask Buddy or Larry really nicely they'll let you do whatever.

I can't wait for Brakeless/hydraulic 11speed Di2/Kermit the Frog and Oscar the Grouch CROSS to start! See ya at Herman!

[itsboz]

What's worked:
Having fun, not taking it too seriously, and enjoying the experience.

What's not worked:
Everything works until it doesn't.

[tim]

What works for me:
1.  Light mountain bike instead of a cross bike.  You people that ride cross bikes that fast are amazing.
2.  What Boz said.
3.  Disc brakes. But then again it's a mountain bike, silly.
4.  Shimano pedals.  I don't know why, but I don't have much trouble with mud.
5.  Low pressure.  Do whatever you have to do to run as little pressure as possible.
6.  Tire choices.  It's amazing how much a tire choice affects handling.
7.  Twist shifters.  I can rip up 9 cogs at once which is handy for those steep abrupt sections.

What doesn't:
1.  Cross bikes.

[itsboz]

tim, on 24 August 2012 - 05:54 AM, said:

What works for me:
6.  Tire choices.  It's amazing how much a tire choice affects handling.

And your ability to walk without a limp for 12 months.

[mikebobelak]

Don't know if it "works" , but its fun!

[tim]

Now MB is really thinking outside of that box!

[mikebobelak]

Ok I fibbed, this is my new CX setup...



And yes I'm doing the Moonlight Ramble

[2 π R]

FreeAwesome, on 23 August 2012 - 10:46 PM, said:

So Rodgers I know your being silly when you say that and I certainly approve, but for those who are on the fence between Disc and Canti and Mini-Vs then this is what I noticed last year.  If the conditions are dry and you have nothing to worry about then jam along with canti's/mini-v's/disc's whatever. Now in the knarly conditions say Mount Pleasant  for example the BB7's I had were awesome.  Dan Miller(correct me if i'm wrong) maybe it was somebody else, but at Mt. P. I think I remember your rear canti brake quick release coming detached because of all the muck then making your rear brake useless. Also, after the state cx championship in KC I remember a few riders bikes getting so gunked up because of thick mud and grass at the canti brakes/posts that they couldn't physically turn neither front or back wheel until they hosed it out. With mini-v's, and many swear by them, they do have better stopping power then traditional canti's. However they do have less mud clearance then canti's, but do have(and this is what I like) a more compact design so you no longer run the risk of shredding your leg skin off if you miss a remount. I've seen pics of that on blogs, not cool.  Also, with my disc brakes last year, the brake pads became we'll say "seasoned" or some may say "contaminated" just enough to slow me down while braking light to half strength grip. But they would not lock up causing me to loose traction unless I really got a fist full of lever. Just like antilock brakes. I bring that up, because that is also one argument I've had with the disc vs. canti debate. When canti's get just wet enough they slow you down enough, but don't lock up causing one to loose control or traction.
************* So pick your poison. Are you a fair weather cx'er where you will show up for the first handful of nice dry races? Then rock the Canti's. W.T.F. Go O.G.!  Are you ready to race every weekend sept-jan no matter sun, sleet, rain, snow, and you still rock the same canti brake studded steed from before cyclocross became all the rage? Then PARTY man! Go for broke. Paint the town red.  Represent those canti's and or switch it up and try the Mini V's with your florescent skinsuit and neon yellow Mavic shoes. Its cool. Or are you new to the sport, but have ambition to push your body to the ultimate limit that a 45 minute epic cx race will push you to and want your bike to get bawged down as little as possible when you stroll into the nasty weather races? Try a frame with f'ing disc brakes. It'll be cool man. Then you can just complain about how you didn't let yourself recover enough from last weeks race or you could have won with your new disc brake cx bike if only you had gotten a better starting position at the gate but were forced behind the primitives with god forbid "CANTILEVER" brakes and you were also still waiting on your new hydro Di2 11speed lever/disc brakes to come into the shop, but they won't be in until next week.  Or lastly, like what Rodgers said, go brakeless shave some grams. Bmxer's and fixie riders have been doin' it for years now.Why are we so slow to catch on? But what do I know, I've only raced one season of cx. Maybe if you put on make-up and perfume and go ask Buddy or Larry really nicely they'll let you do whatever.

I can't wait for Brakeless/hydraulic 11speed Di2/Kermit the Frog and Oscar the Grouch CROSS to start! See ya at Herman!

ditto, and to add I think that if you seriously dislike something you need to state why. Just saying something sucks has no value what-so-ever to those who are trying to figure out what to use. It is perfectly fine to pan a particular product or component, just give a few details please.

@swikles