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Doing a CX race on Sunday, currently -4C with 6" snow. What bike set up would you recommend - I'm riding hobby class on a MTB with 50cm bars and 26"wheels, so:
1 x 9 gears or 38:18 SS ?
1.35 Schwalbe CX Tyres or 2.35F&R Nobby Nics or 2.35 NN Fr/2.35 High Roller rear ?
Course is 1 mile long with 35m up.
Advice appreciated, mainly on gears
Simon
[i]What bike set up would you recommend[/i]
A very light one - you'll be carrying it a lot in 6" of snow!
1 x 9 gears and the Schwalbe tyres.
Good luck and have fun!
gears!
Gears might help as ss ratio might be too high for snow. But they might clog - maybe too cold for that though?
Tyres - I found ss tyres (35-42) worked well today even in uncompressed snow, I suspect 2.35s would be too hard work in compressing the snow.
[b]Hamme Zogge Super Prestige, November 2008[/b].
No idea what Nys, Albert, Pauwels et al were riding, but they were all still damned quick, even in Belgium's worst snow for 30 years.
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I'd go SS. Good chance your mech will get clogged up anyway. I'd go a bit lower on the gearing though.
I rode a CX race on my 26" bike with those 1.35 Schwalbe CX tyres on Sunday with 32:15 (I had been riding 32:13 for the rest of the series). There was only a couple of cm of snow, but it was hard work on the uphill sections. I think if you are talking about 6" snow, I'd go 32:18.
I did the tod' cross race in Jan on 42x18 - that was too high a ratio for the hill and undulations, fine on flat. ace clearances! Just kept on working. could have done with something like 38/40x20.
racing in the snow can hurt;
[img] http://www.bigringriding.com/photo/1280/2058115780/1/tumblr_lcqq6m7feT1qbxnpg [/img]
http://vc-moulin.blogspot.com/2010/11/snow-cross.html
38 x 11/28 ... in deep snow needed the low gear.
Tufo Cubus tyres running pretty low pressure... could feel the rim bottoming out on alot of course.