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I have 42cm Salsa Belle Laps on my crosser and at the widest part i.e the flare in the drop they are about 500mm +/-2mm using a retractable tape.
The rules say flat bars mustn't exceed 500mm. That's clear enough, but I'm getting firm yes and no's about that applying to drops.
How tight are they on this, is rules are rules and if I'm 2mm out it's an early bath?
They're not THAT strict, an adjudicator takes a stroll around and anyone blatently flouting the rules will be asked to swap kit but you'll be ok on that.
Basically it is designed to keep the event as it's tradition, a cyclocross race. IMO that should mean using drop bars full stop but that's another debate.
Unless you're in with a shout for a win i wouldn't worry about it.
From the rules.. "Straight handlebars are permitted, provided the maximum width does not exceed 50cm."
I'd say that specifically applied to [i]straight handlebars[/i]. What do you think? No mention of drop bars.
[i]42cm Salsa Belle Laps[/i]
I had these on my bike when I did it, no-one stopped me.
Funnily enough there's a discussion about exactly that [url= http://www.3pcxforum.org.uk/forum_posts.asp?TID=461&PN=1 ]over on the 3 peaks forum[/url]
...though, after reading it, I'm none the wiser 😆
I borrowed a bike last year with the same bars. I was so frightened by reading the rules that I took a hacksaw with me to the start - poor bloke would have been horrified what I was proposing to do with his nice bike 🙂
...nobody batted an eyelid though.
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NO one's complainign about Salsa's labelling of its handlebar sizes?
twinklydave I was asking on that post, and it was a definate yes, no maybe.
The rule is that any bar used (flat, flared, drop etc) be no wider than 50cm.
As to how strict they are it's virtually impossible to police. There's not much in the way of formal bike checks (plenty of people wandering round with tape measures and a tyre width checker) but so many people swap bikes on various parts of the course (another thing I think should be banned) that some of the front runners are using almost road bikes on the road sections and swapping to bikes of dubious legality for the off-road bits. I've seen people on bikes with tyres that are obviously >35mm yet by the time they come back into the finish they're on a regular CX again having swapped it back again. I think it should eb like a mountain bike race in that respect - no bike swaps, no wheel changes, you should be self-sufficient while on course. It would cut down the amount of traffic as well, cars hurtling past with bikes on board, desperate to catch up to their rider so they can swap the bike back again.
Bike swaps are part of CX. Unlucky. Never going to change it.
Its not a mountain bike event.
I'm not one for the idea of bags, but they help, so im not going to shout about it.
and swapping to bikes of dubious legality for the off-road bits
that is shocking 🙁
i took my bell laps off last year and put on a narrower pair of drops, was annoyed when i got there, loads of people using them, saw no one asked to change them, there was a least one person on an mtb frame that i saw. An as mentioned people with very very wide 35mm tyres on some of the offraod bits. Leave them on no one will say anything