Hi all,
Lots of lovely bikes on this thread, but no carbon.
Steel has street-cred, but carbon is light and comfy 
Cheers
Scott
Ibis Hakkalugi 1 by notriks, on Flickr
Ibis Hakkalugi 2 by notriks, on Flickr
verrrry nice notriks!
that is a nice bike!
but if you crashed as much as we do on the trails down here (or go swimming in the river like Blakey) you’d tend towards steel/alu
Well ElBrado,
I never guessed when I sold you the Argos I would ever be doing a Cyclo Cross race again.
I built this up for the Ipswich Cyclo Cross race, and left it together- went out on a mildly serious run with it last week- looking around for a 'cross frame now that will take 700c and disc brakes.
A week before the Ipswich event it looked like this.
The frame is a Muddy Fox Sorcerer Pro Frame, at the time (about 1989) the top of the range- I got it because the Muddy Fox I originally bought had a dodgy bottom bracket, it was not cut square so I asked the sales rep if he would replace it, they did not have any of my model in my size only this one.
The bottom bracket is an original Mavic one, bearings still perfect after 20 years.
Bring on the next cyclo cross race- I’m in !!!
wish I could get narrower tyres onto the frame.
Have decided that my On One (on page one) will be getting V-brakes, Risers with lotsa sweep (ala Shifterbikes Sushi Bars), Carbon forks with shorter rake, and a lighter wheelset as an early xmas present.
Due to the length of the frame it feels so much better with risers instead of dropbars in terms of handling and control offroad.
got around to fitting an Alan carbon fork i picked up, installed with a new hope headset, white industry cranks and raisers. went for a ride this morning and loved it. Is it still a CX ride if its got raisers?
huey might have a point, are risers valid? and more importantly how the hell do you use drops in CX? You get no control and it offers little or no aerodynamic seeing you aren’t doing 40kms+ an hour?
+1 we need this cleared up, i think it might be a technical…aka the rules
Ok, I’ll bite. Number one, use the (google) search function - yes, it’s the rules - and B. The lower position you get in the drops = more power - you don’t see track riders sprinting on the tops of their bars. Personally, I find myself using every position I can find when racing cx - getting down in the drops to power over short steep hills, to really wind it up on the paved sections etc.
This is touching on technique here I guess - maybe worthy of its own thread?
you develop actual bike handling skills rather than relying on the bike to do all the hard work [see: suspension]
but yes - angry is right - rules (and the UCI’s longstanding attempt to keep a difference between MTBs and CX bikes) as well as some of the advantages provided by the drops/hoods for short bursts of power (which are typical for CX).
well there you go, didn’t know that. Thanks.
I’m sure I saw photos of Thomas Freisknecht using flat bars in the late 90’s, when he used to race both MTBxc and CX.
I now have my crosscheck perfectly set up… just waiting on a front hope hub and it will be complete
Replaced my midge bars with salsa woodchippers. They are so much better! 640mm wide in drops, lots of hand room and the hoods are more usable than midges.
v.nice - could you post a photo from the front? And did you get the bars from slinky?
Yes I am sure you did, quite a few cross racers in the late 80’s early 90’s started to use flat bars- not sure what the bike regs were back then, never paid that much attention. Wonder if there are archives of the rules somewhere- will need to look into that.
A few parts to be upgraded along the way, but overall is a EDIT -friggin awesome ride.
Tektro 720 brakes, Shifter built wheels (a few years old but will do for now), Ritchey Excavader tyres, Regal saddle and running 42/18.
here is my alan, unsure of exact year. Alu lugs, carbon tubes. Suntour freewheel, rd and bar ends. campag hubs with mavic rims (clincher though), dura ace cranks that are 42/50, might have to get a smaller crank though. I bought it built up with everything but the wheels from a belgian second hand website. A phone call, several emails with babel fish and 2 months later I have a new/old cross bike. It is pretty nice, a bit of a classic. Not bad for $200 including postage! The people I bought it from are really nice and we have since become penpals (they think its a bit strange that we race cyclocross in australia. they even got an offer for more money than what they’d agreed to sell it to me but they sold it to me anyway as I got there first! god I love europeans! still experimenting with the cantis, i think the lower stradle height seem to work better for these ones (shim deore). anyway here are the pics
dude awesome bike with an awesome story! i’ve always had a thing for ALAN’s and that is sweet sor of reminds me of that Greg Lemond carbon alu lug road bike he road on back in the day
nexus love the colourway on the pompino
and yes im back tracking a bit here, but about the whole drops thing,
being able to get down in the drops means a lower centre of gravity and more power, which means more balance and speed through those mud and sand pits
10 dollars says nikcee and jeremy can both guess where i got that info
i wont take your money… but will accept hot chips
id rather see you spend it on your CX build
nice alan!