I like having variation in my stock, so whilst contemplating CX with three geared MTB’s already I thought that SS CX would be good for winter training, with the bike itself obviously then CX capable. I’m looking at a Pinnacle Arkrose SS FWIW.

However, I might like to do longer distance rides – say 70k – and a couple of winter races to supplement my MTB training. Is it ridiculous to turn up at a race on single speed, or am I compromised in any other of my riding?

I’d just like to work out whether SS on a CX is a good idea or gears would be better/more flexible, all other things being neutral?

What have I missed?

Ask Sven?

your mental health patients appointment ?

Raced SS on my MTB with cross tyres. Was fine and much more reliable than 2xN. Never challenged for top 10, and gears may have been part of the problem (bike handling is another!). Now running 1×9 on the mud and it will have its proper test at Hillingdon sticky mudfest on Sunday.

On the nice ride along the towpath this morning, having gears was faster.

YES!!!!

[/url]Keynsham Shamcross CX by martinddd, on Flickr[/img]

Although your reasoning/competitiveness might be different to mine. I start at the back and then unleash my psychological SS assault from the rear on the weakened back markers. On the plus side for me, my positioning throughout the race can’t get any worse!!!

Oh & 57″ of a really nice gear suffices.

On the really muddy courses you’ll achieve ultimate levels of smugness as you pass those whose derailleurs have morphed with their rear wheel in a molten mass of mud & metal.

Its all good, gears or SS – CX = the crack cocaine of cycling 😉

I’ve considered it for muddy races as I don’t have a pit crew. More reliable and my gears don’t last the hour anyway. I’ve considered it but a lack of decent bike choices has put me off so far.

Surely go the whole way. Fixed.

I usually do slightly better on my sscx.
6th at Sunday’s regional champs. 2nd,and two 4ths at league events.

I’ve definitely thought about one for a spare, but this year the nwcca hasn’t been that muddy

The Singlespeed European Cross Championships will be held in Brighton (Stanmer Park), on 18/19th Feb next year. Thats a pretty good excuse to build one and practice your drinking skills if you live anywhere near.

Jonathan Dennis has won a few rounds of the London Cross League on a singlespeed, a lowly Pompino in fact, so if you’ve got the legs you can go well on one.

Sven likes it: “I hope in the next few years I can race more singlespeed races because this is what I want to do”

anyone come across a 38T oval chainring in 104 floarvour?

I’ve raced CX twice: once SS came second to last. once with 18 gears came 6th from bottom.

not much in it.

maybe if i had 180 gears i could win. I’d need to either go 1×180 or 20×9. now that’s niche 😯

BITD I raced CX in California and was sponsored on a team for 4 seasons… one of those seasons I rode SS CX, having got into it via a winter of fixed gear riding for training/developing a good spin.

I had a great time!

In every race, everyone blew past me from the gun and by the first corner I was dead last. By the end of the 1st lap I was significantly far behind.

BUT… remember the tortoise & hare? On a SS CX I found you get into a good, fast rhythm and just kept that going for the whole hour, whereas everyone else went out like bats out of hell at the start, then the speed dropped off from the halfway point of the race. The last 15mins of every race I was overtaking lots & lots of riders left, right and centre.

I never won a CX race outright on my SS CX, but my God it was fun. And seeing the look on my compadres faces 50 minutes into a hard race as I went past them was priceless.

🙂

The one time I tried CX, the Spy Velo CX Cup series last year on a hilly downland course on a windy day, I remember thinking it wouldn’t make a great deal of difference if I’d been on a singlespeed. You’re on and off the bike for the steeper sections and the obstacles anyway, and thinking ahead about being in the right gear at the right time was part of what made the whole thing so challenging. The folk at the sharp end of the race were so much fitter than me, it wouldn’t have mattered if I was riding Shergar. I’d still have been lapped.

Jonathan Dennis has won a few rounds of the London Cross League on a singlespeed, a lowly Pompino in fact, so if you’ve got the legs you can go well on one.

Nicely done 8)

What have I missed?

well apparently I’ve missed the bit between you cancelling/returning your CX bike, and getting one and contemplating racing on it?!

Having lost 3 rear mechs last year I have seriously considered going SS for the mudbaths (I have a pit bike which I’d convert). There’s a guy occasionally races Central CX in Seniors (possibly the above mentioned Jonathan Dennis as I think he’s from London) on a SS and when he races he’s usually on the podium, more often than not the top step.

The average speed at cross races is quite low, and whilst they often have one straight where you can get a decent top speed and a SS might spin out and get dropped, it won’t sink a race.

A certain poster on this forum won the Scottish CX series on a SS a few years ago. Not an easy series to win.

I race CX on SS, I’m usually a top 10 finisher this season. I also race XC on a SS.

There’s pluses and minuses, as you can imagine. My race bike (when clean) weighs 6kg dead with pedals on, and it doesn’t have a carbon stem, bars or seatpost.

That Pinnacle you’re looking at is a nice bike. I rode one of them in the 3 Peaks a few years ago, liked it.

The pinnacle got sold, no doubt I advertised it for someone.

The bikes also for general bumbling and training duties also, so that should be considered.

Raced the London League on SS for the last couple of seasons – few top 5s & finished 9th overall in Vet 40s last season but this year I’ve strugged a bit more – maybe lack of mud at this year’s races (although it hasn’t slowed rollindoughnut who blows past me on the start!).

Have actually switched to gears now & am enjoying the change – still have another SS Kite for the Euros mentioned above, which Singular Cycles are organising incidentally 🙂

Still toying with the the idea of CX then.. 😉

It’s big with the hipster tryhards in North America but less so in uk. I have pondered ss carting broken 2x bikes with a metric tonne of mud on them around muddy playing fields but have had a lot of luck with srams new 1x stuff which has silenced the ss devil for the moment.

What ratio are people using for racing?

39:17 for me.

Yes! 36:16 for me. Finishing about 2/3 down he field. SS has not been a disadvantage, compared to my fitness and the fact that I’m on a steel pompino with reclaimed from scrap wheels, crappy brakes and not great tyre clearance. If I was more serious about racing, I’d still go SS but on a lighter, more specialist bike with discs. At the last race, there were broken rear mechs galore, so unless you want to buy 2 bikes and make a mate stand in a field washing your pit bike’s jockey wheels, SS makes sense

Isla Rowntree is racing Trophies SS this year, and doing rather well.

36:15

SSCX is great. No worrying about whether your next shift is going to snap off your derailleur. Easy to clean. Lighter.

If you want to be competitive you need to be a competent runner and be able to put power down at different cadences. I prefer to run a lower gear, something just under 60″. You’ll spin out on a long road section but I’d rather have the acceleration and have a chance to ride banks and the like.

Usually by this point of the season I’d say that a single SSCX bike would beat a single geared bike, but it’s been exceptionally dry down South this Autumn. Still, I managed 22nd at the last National Trophy on a dry, fast course (average over 28 kph), whilst Isla Rowntree won the V40s on a SS.

As I’ll have one CX bike and racing will be a minority activity – can we focus on flexibility? Surely a geared CX is more flexible in general?

And a list of SSCX bikes would be useful…?

I have a Specialized Tricross SS, and will be doing the Euros thing. As yet I have not ridden it off road or ever raced CX, but hey, what’s the worst that could happen??

Get a frame with a BB30/PF30 shell & use an eccentric or get one with sliding dropouts (bit more limited in availability) so that you can do both.

You singlespeed round stanmer on a mtb, don’t you, TimP?

I have done, yes, but not for a year or so

Time to change that, then! 🙂 I was asking because I was thinking about ratios and hills compared to mountain biking.

I’m SSing the Peregrine shortly. I had been thinking of picking up a 38 or 36T wobbly ring, then realised Stanmer’s probably similarly hilly to round me. Happy riding SS round here on 35/17, 26″ mtb.

Then I realised I’ve got a spare wobbly 32, and a spare 16. Add them to the spare 2″ race kings and the shorter cranks, and Sheldon posthumously tells me I’ve got a ratio 6% higher than the 26er. So I’m leaving the wobbly 36T on the shelf at crc for now.

Now I’m not going to be scoring any championship points with the 2″ rubber for several reasons:
a) because I won’t be eligible for points
2) because I won’t be placing in the points
iii) because there aren’t any championship races near enough to me to enter

People might kick sand in my face for having such a tiny front ring on a CX bike, but **** ’em! 😀

Mine is stock with a 42 x 18T and that seems fine on road (where it has spent all its time!) but that feels like it is going to be too much for my puny legs off road. I did look at smaller rings, but they all seemed to be about £30 due to the BCD so thinking I might swap my old XT cranks with a 36T, but that might be a bit low…I am unlikley to be challenging for the podium so low might be better

I was on 32×16 on a 26″ round Stanmer

My crappy station bike was 42:18, off road hills involved a lot of pushing!

The way I see it, the only reason why cx gearing is normally higher is because the terrain is flatter, the hills are generally short and sharp.

But if you’re riding the same terrain as you would on a mtb, I don’t know why you should go for a gear that’s harder than you’d want to be riding on a mtb?

Or wot?

Would be a non-starter for me to take out on the trails, you’d have to gear it so low for any serious climb that I wouldn’t enjoy riding it on the rolling stuff.

Sounds good for the races, although running 1×10 has been flawless for me this season (just 1 properly heavy race, though, and a couple of mediums). Running up all of the steeps would be a definite backwards step for me – beasting it up these on the bike is a reliable way to gain places around the peer group I race against.
I guess the pay off is that a ss drivetrain on the sixth lap might be running a bit faster than my geared one with 2 kilos of mud around the chain stays.

Would be a non-starter for me to take out on the trails,

The majority of my riding, racing would be 1-4 races per year. I guess I don’t even need SS for training I can just leave the bike in a challenging gear, although honking hard with gears always makes me worry I’m about to rip the mech off.

Update: too fat/unfit for 42×18 and 10% off road hills

You’re just not walking slowly enough! 😀

It’ll change you…

forever!!!