[Closed] What Darkside(road) & semi-darkside(cross) do you ride on potholed scots roads!?

Get the cross bike basically.

Have spent a fantastic winter blatting about on some truly awful roads, and then nipping off on to farm tracks and forest roads, before rejoining the tarmac elsewhere. Can also take in some nice singletrack and you will find yourself aiming for the muddy bits for the sheer fun of it.

I went S/S and have now geared it low so (hopefully) it will prove decent training for the road bike, lots of high cadence efforts!

Just come back in from an hour out on my Genesis Vapour (cross bike).

Its got mudguards and 700c x 32 Schwalbe Marathons on it, but can still handle a few bumpy bits - and it's great knowing you're not going to wreck your posh bike / posh wheels piling into the potholes. The brakes are a bit pants, so I'd replace it with something with discs on if push came to shove, but it's got a carbon fork, 34/50 compact chainset and it gets used a lot at the moment.

+1 Vapour

I have my eye on them....

I'd replace it with something with discs on if push came to shove

I'm actually enjoying the simple charms of my mini Vs. They're incredibly powerful, and unlike discs my rim doesn't develop random wobbles, and when it does its much easier to fix than a warped rotor. Also, if you don't mind lots of movement at the lever, you can set the pads up much further away from the rim so your ride is no longer accompanied by the constant scrape of disc on grit.

Also, if you can be bothered adjusting the pads occasionally, they run more or less silently, which is more than I could say for ANY disc brake I've used in the wet. And frankly, its a cross bike, I don't need instant controllable power at the last minute, I've got bugger all grip on the tyres anyway!

Now, what rim to replace the horribly concaved ones I've got at the moment... 8)

"Now, what rim to replace the horribly concaved ones I've got at the moment... "

Mavic, i love em.

........So is it not possible to have a 'road' bike that can soak up all those nasty roads i.e
Spec Roubaix? (insane money!)
or those that have carbon seat stays / wishbones - like Bianchi and Spec.
or even full alu ones that state 'all day comfort and forgiving rides'?

As for steel - I rode a lovely classic Gazzelle a while back on the same roads, which was tasty, on 25c, but it flexed badly on climbing and seemed slow.

there must be a compromise somewhere....

I have a Specialized Tricross Sport which is ok on all but the toughest of stony paths. And if there's something in front, you can bunny hop over it. I have a few routes into work, some ok for road, some need the mtb. As long as you can make it fun. 🙂

+1 tricross

I've got my eye on them too. The earlier models had rear carbon triangle + zerts..... must feel like a sofa to ride on with those!

That to me would be my do it all bike, with some decent semi slick tyres with enough tread for the landy tracks yet a comfortable ride across the 'roads' around here...

Commute on an early version of the Langster which has the straight aluminium forks used to be a bit buzzy, moving up to 25c tyres with a sl;ightly lower tyre pressure made a difference. Not sure if gel inserts under the tape will help, the old pro trick for Paris Roubaix and the like was to double wrap the bars. Have you tried altering the position maybe raising the bars a bit if you're straight armed

hey Kilo,

aye the front end isnt the main issue, not my riding position, its the rear triangle and seat thats harsh, tried carbon seatpost and alloy (thomson masterpiece) but still no joy.... was nice to ride in the smooth roads of the alps, but here, its a disaster....(or im too old to take the vibrations!!!)

stick a decent set of 25c tyres on at a slightly lower pressure and learn to plan your route round potholes or bunny hop when you can't be bothered.

I use a Ragley Cragg Vale with 25mm Conti Gatorskins and a Spesh Pave post. Its pretty comfortable on all but the worst surfaces, although I have honed my skills of looking well ahead (and bunnyhopping).

BTW, D & G roads aren't that bad, you should see the joke that South Lanarkshire have the cheek to call roads 😯

I've been finding my Boardman Team Carbon surprisingly comfortable despite the state of the backroads I mostly ride it on. Still need to avoid the worst of the potholes though.

My Winter bike this time round has been a Scott CX comp.
I have a 4 mile stretch of off road on my 20 mile commute and it's fine with the big tyres on. Oh,and the road bit (Fife) is a nightmare just now

It's been really good ,though next change will be to a frame with disc mounts ,as I seem to be going through a lot of brake pads in the shitty weather. (Really liked Druiths Van Nick that he posted up recently ,looked like an almost perfect all rounder IMO)

I also used it at the end of last year for some weekenders and never found the cross frame set up a problem with higher mileage .TBH I think I went down hills quicker than on my carbon road bike as it felt so stable.

Pompino on 38mm tyres can handle most stuff.

Thinking about putting Big Apples on the 29er for road use though - some of those potholes swallow wheels 🙂

some of those potholes swallow wheels

Heard stories from a lot of car drivers at work about dented wheels and wrecked tyres .

South Lanarkshire roads are a bit of a challenge as are Glasgows. I like the sections that have just peeled away to reveal the cobbles underneath and those that have just melted and swept to the side.
Potholes are either natures way to tell us to build less roads or less HGVs.

I'm thinking of getting a crosser through the company's bike to work scheme for commuting and some maybe even a bit of actual cyclocross... Limited to Halfords and their sizing seems vague, to say the least. As it's more of a niche product can't see many stores stocking to let me try for size. I ride 58cm road and 18 inch mountain. How does the Boardman size up? The voodoo with 200 nicker off looks good though (£799) but as i said, the vagueness of the sizing on the website's doing me no favours, and i don't hold much hope of helpful advice from my local branch... (apologies for hijacking this thread by the way.. :oops:)

My old Kona Jake, not just for roads 🙂

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Roads in the Borders are pretty bad in places at the moment.
In the summer I ran 25mm road tyres on it for a bit and did a sportive but usually just ride it about with the cross tyres on so I can do a mix of road / tracks.

looks like a nice ride.

what cx tyres do you use?

Spesh Tricross, though I've swapped the cross tyres for some 28mm GP 4 Seasons now. Brilliant bike; copes with just about anything from smooth tarmac to Pentlands trails, and very comfy to ride.

maxxis mudwrestler front (grips well and rolls faster than it looks)
maxxis raze rear (rolls really fast and grips better than it looks)

+1 kona 🙂

anyone got a kona major jake? can they be trippled?

Hybrid? Kona Dew? Has decent brakes, and flat bars help manoevrability and gravel-induced skid correctability.

[img] [/img]

2010 Jake the Snake has been awesome through the winter

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[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/surfr/5279361137/ ]WAGs ride 19122010 017[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/surfr/ ]Surfrdan[/url], on Flickr

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[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/surfr/5268645378/ ]Untitled[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/surfr/ ]Surfrdan[/url], on Flickr

And with 23s on it'll be good enough for all road work. I did TTs, Sportives, Cross races and hill climbs last season on it. Here it is will full guards competing in an end of season club hillclimb event.

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[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/surfr/5017745202/ ]Me on Primrose Hill Hillclimb[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/surfr/ ]Surfrdan[/url], on Flickr

Hoping to be a bit quicker this season on a racy new carbon crit bike though 🙂

I find there's no problem with skinny tyres on the road if it isn't busy, it's easy enough to avoid the holes. But when there's a lot of traffic some of the line choices that have to be made mean whacking straight over sharp edged potholes.

so there's Kona Jake, Kona Jake the Snake, Kona Major Jake, and a carbon version of Kona Jake ?
phew....