Right I have swapped my pompi for something with gears as I wanted something that can do a bit more distance in comfort so I got myself a Condor Cyclocross bike

Not sure I have done the right thing? Although I went for function over style and will get more use out of this than the pompi. Although it don't look as nice.

Currently all set up for road with skinny tyres but I have a few questions about this darkside lark?

Gearing? Whats the typical range of a rear cassette? My top gear seems quite easy?

Currently got a 2 x 10 groupset. So whats my cruising gear? Do I have full range of all 20 or is there some I should really try to avoid? Should I usually be in bottom ring or top ring? (this is based on the mountain bike 3 rings, stay in middle as much as possible unless you need top or bottom)

Campagnolo Veloce any good?
Ambrosia exellight rims? What width tyre they hold and are they suitable for off road? They seem very thin?

Do I have to buy lurid lycra?

Any other good tips for a bit of summer evening road riding? Anything I need to know or avoid?

If you had bought an Alfine hub you could have kept the Pompino.

But it wouldn't be as shiny as the Condor…

If you had bought an Alfine hub you could have kept the Pompino.

There was thought on that as it was 135mm spacing but cost of buying and conversion was too much. The condor was a straight swap with that and an old retro bike I had lying around. No cash swapped hands

Good quality bike and the shops in Grays Inn rd
in London
Very nice bike

Gearing? Whats the typical range of a rear cassette? My top gear seems quite easy? I've got a compact on the front with a 50t big ring and a 12-25 cassette, you might have a lower one like a 12-27

Currently got a 2 x 10 groupset. So whats my cruising gear? Do I have full range of all 20 or is there some I should really try to avoid? Should I usually be in bottom ring or top ring? If you can trim the front mech you 'should' be able to use all the rear in either of the front rings, kinda pointless though as a lot of the gears duplicate themselves in the middle ranges

Campagnolo Veloce any good? It works 🙂

Ambrosia exellight rims? What width tyre they hold and are they suitable for off road? They seem very thin? I think they're pretty beefy courier type things, should put up with mild off road like towpath, fire road, not too rough stuff

Do I have to buy lurid lycra? YES 🙄 😆

As steve_b77 says

Ambrosia excellight rims are good mid price rims. Excellence rims are the more bling ones that are used by Paris-Roubaix teams (with the stickers covered up!)

Looks nice. I've got a vaguely similar set-up as my road bike but with a Genesis Vapour. Until last winter I ran it solely on the road with Conti Gatorskins on. I've got Tiagra/105 9sp on and usually cruise on big ring/4th down at the back. That's about a 70" gear I think. I rarely go below 4th back and small ring (compact so 30 tooth) for any climbing and that equates to about 50". It's probably not as light as a full on road bike but to me feels quite stiff and lively (much more so than my mate's Spec Tricross)

Last winter (following the 3 peaks CX race which was brilliant) I left on the Schwalbe Landcruisers which rolled much better than the Conti Twisters that the bike came with. Also allowed some off road if I fancied it. I'm thinking I might well do some local CX races next winter.

I have bought some (very conservative) lycra but it's not essential 🙂

Veloce is like LX only more expensive cos it's Italian,some cassettes are 29t I think?

Thought the idea was you should try to avoid chain-cross cos it wears the soap, so pick a combo front back that avoids extremes?

Get some decent mini-v brakes.

– Aesthetics. Your bike looks great mate. Has made me more inclined (once again) to go have a look at Condor bikes…

– Gearing: Typical range of a cassette varies according to rider, terrain and use. Typically a thoroughbred road cassette will be 11 or 12 through to 21 or 23…perhaps sometimes going as far as a 25 if there's really steep stuff around. On a cross bike 12 – 25 seems to be roughly the norm but ultimately I suggest you play around and find what works for you.

Looking at your set up, for road use only, your highest gear is likely to be a bit on the twiddly side as you've got a comparitively small large chain ring, dyed in the wool roadies will run a 52 or 53 tooth chain ring, as compared to your 48(?). As yours is a cyclo cross bike rather than a road bike, the gears are always going to be smaller to allow you to tackle a wider range of terrain.

– Cruising gear…whatever you can turn at 80 – 100 rpm on a flat road without straining yourself.

– "Campagnolo Veloce any good?" – Very good. Have known people do road races with it.

– "Do I have to buy lurid lycra?" Do you want to?

Hope this was helpful and hope I haven't repeated what anyone else has said in the meantime!

Cheers for that, steve_b

Sorry couple more questions. Its all a mystery to me?

I am assuming a compact just means two rings?

You mention trimming the front mech? What do you mean? My front mech catches slightly on my crank arms when in high gears but assumed this was a set up issue?

Enjoyed my evening ride tonight which was the first ride. Get bored of local mtb trails on an evening and was good to get some miles in a different way. Willl put some cross tyres on though as its smooth fast bridleways round here at the moment.

No, a compact is two rings with a wider range though not as much as a triple. So, 30/50 rather than say 42/53

Trimming is just setting up the front mech so it stops in the right place so as not to catch the chain when using all the rear teeth. Sometimes the shifters allow some trimming, ie movement rather than being indexed in one position.

It's much easier than mountainbiking 😉

Compact means both front rings are smaller – 34/50 or something similar, compared to a road racing type 39/53 etc… Lots of people ride compact these days since you have to be quite strong to ride a 53.

You can move the front ring over slightly – not enough to change gear, but enough to stop the chain rubbing. Just one click is usually enough.

Paul4stones – Mine is aluminium with carbon forks. A lot stiffer than the pompi but I think a lot of that could be the skinny pumped tyres as opposed to the steel frame. Will have a look at them tyres then as well as that is the first thing I need.

tinribz – got Avid shorties at the moment and they are plenty powerful at the moment. Gonna stick with them for the moment till I decide what I want to change (if anything)

Roadie in denial – 50 big front ring 12- 25 at the back. Think I may have to buy a few bits of lurid roadie stuff if I get into it. Or just go XC whipppet mtb lurid lycra and use for both? I mean roadies are not the only one with tight fitting stuff.

As it looks like a campag ultra torque chainset presumably the big ring is 50? You shouldn't really run out of high gears at a decent cadence.

Nice bike BTW 😉

PS. 700×28 slicks are good on a CX bike for general hacking about

oh yes thats a point! All this fine tuning of front mech is quite cool! Can imagine it wouldn't work on a MTB as well but I like it. Took a while to get used to the integrated gears brake thing.

Well will have to play with front mech a bit as there is no chain rub but the mech does hit the crank arm slightly.

Coming from downtube shifters c1985 I found the STI shifters fantastic. To be able to just notch up or down a gear on a whim is great meaning maintaining a cadence is easy – but that's not something you'll be used to with the Pomp! You should be able to push a high gear though.

Aluminium/steel is significant for stiffness I reckon(depending on the frame and based on my comparison of Inbred 29er and Scandal 29er).

PS I'm also @sprocdoc

havent read all the replies, but, i do alot of riding on the road and i found that when i first started doing it that i was getting in the lowest gear possible and jump pumping legs and hard i can, but its alot more about momentum and RPM i think, on a flat i look to go at about 90RPM in about 4 up from bottom, this works out at about 21 mph, if i go in a lower gear i can average about 60 rpm but its more effort and its only about 20 mph, the gears you have are probably the correct ones

jacko – that would make sense actually. Quite like high gears and mashing the pedals so may just have to change strategy and spin.

@sprocdoc ah cool! Good to put forum names to twitter ones.