[Closed] Cyclocross racing on an MTB?

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.
[url= http://www.londonxleague.co.uk/ ]london league[/url]
Also look at the central league
[url= http://centralcxl.org.uk/?q=node/74 ]central league[/url]

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!

[url= http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=24614 ]Schwalbe cx pro 26x1.35[/url]

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):
[img] [/img]

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 £?