I'm thinking of doing a couple of CX races this winter, as well as the traditional MTB Gorrick races. The organisers say it's fine to ride an MTB, but are you at much of a disadvantage? Without spending a fortune, what could you do to a hardtail to make it more appropriate? Rigid forks and skinny knobblies?
Is anyone doing the Herne Hill CX or Rapha series?
I did one in Bingley last year on a fully rigid single speed. I thought I would do ok, but I got lapped 3 times by the leaders and came in the bottom third.
The problem partly was the stickyness of the mud and the sheer mass of it I was carrying around on my largish mountain bike tyres. If I do it this year I'm going to get some skinnier tyres and see if that helps.
Interestingly the top riders in the race had 2 bikes each and were swapping bikes every lap and getting them hosed down by their helpers each time!
I wouldn't make too many changes if I were you for the first race - tyres and probably not much else. See if you like it - you can always make more changes for future races.
cheers
Ian
As said, forget the fork until you're sure you're happy. Skinniest tyres you can get though I reckon. Stiffen/shorten fork if avalable externally.
1.5" Contis or Black Sharks and you'll be fine.
I've had my arse kicked all around a CX race by a rider on an MTB before. Ultimately it's the engine and skill level that matters.
There are 2 london league races at Herne Hill -2nd Oct and 5th Feb - I think that I will be trundling round at the back and the OH will be commissairing.
london league
Also look at the central league
central league
I'm one of the organisers of tonight's Herne Hill race and the London League on the 2nd. You will be fine on an MTB. It's quite rocky/rubbley for a cross course and MTBs have won there in the past.
Muddy Hell has a go-cross race which in the past must have had at least 50% MTBs
As already said - Conti XC 1.5s is what I used to use when I reced the welsh series many moons ago. Got a bronze medal in the under 23's and my friend got a silver, both on MTBs at Morfa stadium 
Remember how much it will hurt as well!!! 1 hour of CX hell! Just put on skinny tyres, I was Junior WElsh CX Champ on an MTB!
best mtb tires for CX.... are CX tires designed for a mtb!
I've got a spare set of those in the garage, brand new, £25 delivered.
You'll probably be at an advantage on a twisty more technical course on an MTB, then at a disadvantage on faster flowing courses. The CX pro tyres are fine.
I think you need to have a CX bike if you intend to do National Trophy races.
I've raced quite a bit on a mountain bike. I tried out cross racing first off on a mountain bike and then one year I was left without a cross bike mid season so had to use my cross bike to try and get as many league points as I could. This clear demonstrated how hard it was to be anywhere near competitive and I was finishing at least 10 places down. But it won't kill you and you will get a killer workout whatever bike you are on.
I also have a set of CX pros which I'm looking at get rid of. I actually found that the small diameter tended to leave me struggling over certain sections rather than just riding over them. Acceleration was good but the bike was lower and I had a few pedal strikes out of corners. Not a big problem but took a couple of laps to learn. I ended up going for fast xc tyres.
At the recent MTB/CX races we ran at Sundorne in Shrewsbury the riders felt it was 50/50 - CX bikes romped ahead on the tarmac and flat grass sections but once in the woods the MTBs handled and tracked better. It's a flat course with no dismount necessary and, as it was dry the MTBers felt that virtually slick tyres were the way to go.
All 3 races were won on MTB by Ben Price (Torq sponsored rider):
Good advice, thanks all. I'll just lock my forks out and go skinny on the tyres, rather than my current 2.1" Fire XCs
@gearfreak Tempting - are they wire or kevlar bead?
@traildog ditto - wire or kevlar? Do yours have much wear and how much £?
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