First season racing ‘cross, in fact never rode a drop bar bike till august so I have minimal skill and no clue 😆

Tyres are whatever version of challenge grifo came with the bike. Seem great so far, but yesterday front end felt a bit vague round some corners, and course was pretty dry. i’m using about 30psi.

Is this vagueness purely that i need to weight the front wheel more?

I’m assuming we are going to get rain soon and courses become a bit muddier. In fact I think we are due rain at the end of this week and I understand next weekends race is a mudbath in the damp. e.g last year Carmarthen video

How well will Grifos cope as it gets muddy? do I need to think about getting a different tyres for as the season progresses and if so what? Very much mid-field so primarily concerned about not falling on my arse too many times!

For me grifos are great when it’s not muddy. I run clement pdx and the tread is amazing. I once ran a pdx at the front and a grifo at the rear (i only had one pdx) and back end was all over the place in comparison

Ferrals I’m very pleased with the Limus but I’ve used Grifos before and my club mate does now and he is more your build. I like that the Limus cope with my cack-handed style and grip the off camber sections as well as digging in on the climbs. My club mate was running the sections I was riding yesterday but he is a good runner whereas I run like two hams fighting in a carrier bag.
The Specialized terra tyre seems to work well for some other club mates.

Cheers both. I’m atrocious at running too. ran a bit yesterday but that was due to course congestion rather than the surface. The only bit i couldn’t ride if the line was clear was the second bank on the shorter twisty section near the pits. The clement pdx look a reasonable price but I’m strating to think in reality spending x amount on a second set of cx tyres isnt the best idea – especially as I promised the wife i was just doing it for fun and wasn’t going to take it seriously 😳

Huge Challenge fan here, Tan walled only though make that what you will 😆

Racing in Dry – Almanzo’s sticky and grippy, great for blasting and corner well – 35-45psi front, 45-50 rear.
Racing in Med/Dry – Grifo’s all the way, pressure I’m running depends on terrain – 30psi min for dry, normally 38-42 in both but slightly less in the front (about 2-5psi) I run these most of the time and get through 2-3 sets a year. Use these for long distance CX races too.
Racing Med/Wet – Hmmm, if it’s loamy then the Limus get put on, if it’s muddy Limus too, if it’s more a mixed terrain the Grifo’s stay on. Pressures dependent on terrain, but will go as low as 30psi on the front 35psi on the rear.
Racing Wet/Mud – Limus all the way. Pressure is dependent on the terrain and anywhere 30-35psi for loamy/gloopy or 40-45 harder grass sections or open bridleways.

Never tried the PDX but may do early next year (but I’ve got a spare set of Grifo’s and Limus to get through yet)

There are different varieties of Challenge rubber, try the Pro versions I use, may help, may not.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/what-cheap-cx-tyres

Munqe Chick won the women’s Central League CX on Saturday and came 3rd at Sunday’s Welsh League Brecon round on her OE Rocket Rons, and they’ll be staying on for this weekend’s round unless it is uber muddy in which case I’ll be fitting CX Pros.

Cheers all. I’m now more bewildered than ever! Cant afford the limus as £40 per tyre. toying with eiter the clements or rocket rons. Or just dropping tyre pressure although i think I’m currently at the boundaries of clincher pressure running just under 30psi.

I’m toying with just getting one more aggressive tyre to put on the front – pretty much standard in mtb but doesnt seem so common in cx. is there a reason?

I like my Challenge Grifo/Grifo XS, but have they stopped them delaminating?

kiwijohn – Member

I like my Challenge Grifo/Grifo XS
I cant see them handling real mud? mine were pretty clogged up on sunday.

Anyway, its pissed down all night and forecast rain on and off the next few days, so I am going to order some grippeier tyres for next day delivery in a couple of hours. Completely torn between getting some rocket rons or clement pdx. someone tell me which to go for!!

The vagueness is all part of the fun of cross 😉 you certainly need to get used to playing about with pressures, find somewhere to train on that’s similar to race conditions then do repeated runs on lower and lower pressures until you start feeling the rim more than once on the run. Do this at race pace.

But if you still want to change tyre types,

I use Clement PDX tubulars and I am very pleased with the grip and mud clearing.

A mate uses the clincher version and he’s of the same opinion.

A good review of them here,

http://cycletechreview.com/2013/reviews/clement-pdx-cyclocross-tyres/

Thanks. I’m sold 😆 probably overkill like you say and I should just mess around with pressures but what are credit cards for? 😳

Hang fire, I’ve got a pair of unused Smart Sams that came with my Cx’er you can have for now’t. Brand new, just taken off before the Grifos went on.

oying with eiter the clements or rocket rons

as it’s raining I’ve swapped Munqe Chick’s Rocket Rons for CX Pros. Sounds like our course this weekend (Didcot) could be fun, lots of chalk which will be sticky/slippy and loads of obstacles.

im fairly happy with nobby nics ….2 for 20quid on the bay ,
…..if op isn’t interested in them smart sams id be happy to take them off your hands for postage 😮

Very much mid-field so primarily concerned about not falling on my arse too many times!

Hey, mid-field is reserved for me and you were 20 places ahead of me on Sunday… 😀

Munqe Chick won the women’s Central League CX on Saturday and came 3rd at Sunday’s Welsh League Brecon round on her OE Rocket Rons, and they’ll be staying on for this weekend’s round unless it is uber muddy in which case I’ll be fitting CX Pros.

I’m wondering whether Munque Chick is the rider that slid off behind me just after the tree on Sunday? I’d gone around the next off-camber hairpin after the tree when the guy in front tightened his line and made me tighten mine, ending up with me sliding along and the woman behind doing the same. I thought she was JIF though.

*waves at IdleJon*

I thought she was JIF though.

that’ll be her – races in Cardiff JIF kit (her old club) but is racing for BMCC as her league-affiliated club for the series, but doesn’t have a short sleeve BMCC jersey to race in (so wears a long sleeve on the podium 😀 ).

She seems to like to confuse things – in Brecon she didn’t race in Cardiff JIF kit as she was worried about falling foul of some affiliations rule in a Cat A race.

I assume you’re in V50 then, gonna be at Didcot? Sounds like a fun course with sand, chalk, and stuff steep enough to need straw bales at the bottom….

IdleJon – Member
Hey, mid-field is reserved for me and you were 20 places ahead of me on Sunday…

Haha, I’m sure that will be reversed now we’re getting more cross-like weather and skills will be needed!

bikebouy – Member
Hang fire, I’ve got a pair of unused Smart Sams that came with my Cx’er you can have for now’t. Brand new, just taken off before the Grifos went on.

Cheers, really kind but too late – decided I wanted different tyres for Sundays race so ordered shortly after posting and some pdx are being delivered tomorrow. What’s that phrase about a fool and money? 😳 two tyres for the price of a mtb tyre isn’t bad though

V40. I’m only doing Welsh league races so not at Didcot, but that does sound fun.

Idlejon not sure it was me I was wearing black and pink Ale skin suit racing under Bicester Millennium but I am a JIF rider! I think I was 99th in results! How much of a mental start was that 176 or something in one mass sprint!!! I did crash but further past the tree I went for an aggressive up the inside overtake as too many non technical men slowing me down 😉 so I had a major get down on sliptastic corner! Fab awesome course though!

Racing Central league Sunday? I love CX more than anything!

V40. I’m only doing Welsh league races so not at Didcot, but that does sound fun.

sorry got you wrong way around event-wise (and V50 go off with women in Central League)!

How much of a mental start was that 176 or something in one mass sprint!!! I did crash but further past the tree I went for an aggressive up the inside overtake as too many non technical men slowing me down so I had a major get down on sliptastic corner! Fab awesome course though!

Definately the best course I’ve done so far (only the 4th though), loads of congestion in the first lap – I ended up running most of the first technical section and gained a few places.
I thought the start was pretty well behaved given the numbers, probably because there were so many it was self limiting.
The hurdles were the tallest I’d come across and I found them knackering later in the race!

I thought the start was pretty well behaved given the numbers

we’re spoiled in Central League with each cat getting it’s own start time (even if it’s ‘only’ staggered with a different cat eg. junior men go 1 min before V40, V50 go 1 min before women). All very civilised too- it’s my first season and I was expecting more aggression and testosterone but (so far) the worst pass I’m aware of was, er, me on a club mate where I clipped his bars 😳

The hurdles were the tallest I’d come across and I found them knackering later in the race

I understand they were at the UCI maximum 40cm? A bit high for M-C who is 5’4″!

I’ve found the starts in cross way less agro than xc racing – guess it’s not at the start of the field though.

Couple of hours on the pdx this eve, definately feel the extra edge grip compared to the grifo so happy so far 🙂

Idlejon not sure it was me I was wearing black and pink Ale skin suit racing under Bicester Millennium but I am a JIF rider! I think I was 99th in results! How much of a mental start was that 176 or something in one mass sprint!!! I did crash but further past the tree I went for an aggressive up the inside overtake as too many non technical men slowing me down so I had a major get down on sliptastic corner!

I’ve got a feeling that it was a JIF rider in team kit who went down behind me early in the race, but that I caught and passed you by the hockey pitch on the penultimate lap (or maybe the pre-penultimate! 🙂 ) at the same time as I was trying to escape from Kevin Rees, Gower Riders.. (92nd but I made quite a bit of ground in the last twenty minutes or so.)