The Cyclocross season is upon us. Yay!

Still pouring down here. And remembering how difficult the course is in the dry.

Looking forward to more piccys.

Curious on tyre pressure….. i know i know…what tyres what pressure…save starting a thread when CX’ers are all here.

In my limited experince of using conti cx race 35mm clinchers, the really cheap ones, which have been really good.
Still swotting up on CX racing….but 24-26psi seems very low. Was the course just grass and mud, a soft track so allowing lower PSI ?

I run my conti clinchers at 45 front and 55 rear, and still rim the rear, but haven’t pinch flatted yet. Did pick up 2 thorns, but i do ride rocky tracks and chuck the bike about on downhills.
If i go too low they just squirm and roll.

Do tubs perform better at lower PSI than clinchers ? i know tubs are more supple so more grip than clinchers for serious racing, so the ability to run lower PSI another advantage to tubs ?

Please excuse the questions, i don’t know anyone that races CX and this seems to be a good place to ask.
Eyeing up the south west series race in November at Chard as a possible to at least go and watch…..or get dirty tyres 🙂

acehtn. I’m a bit tired but yes tubs run better at lower pressures. I run clinchers and only go down to about 35/40.

There isn’t usually any rock or such on CX courses, it’s more about sprints and turns and a hell of a lot of wet slippy off camber, oh and dismounts for hurdles and ditches.

Chef did Nik Gustavsson race today?(he used to live up the road with my friends).

Plumstead next Saturday, first race this season, hopefully I’ll be over my cold… and I’ve got shiny news tires to blame when I fail to set the race alight.

7th place today, bloody fantastic racing the whole way 8)

Nik Gustavsson race today?

DNF Sat, 8th in Prestige, (Elite), today, impressive.

Nice work chef!

Happy Valley today, wet & horrible. Lovely 🙂

No idea on position, but definitely 1st singlespeed ;o)

Kinchy – vets or seniors?

Found it really hard today, must have fallen way back on my previous weeks results. Had to ride it for the ‘long run’ steady smooth and upright.

Happy Valley was pretty hard today. The head wind from the finish line onwards was demoralising. Was pretty pleased to get up to 4th in the V/J/W but faded to 6th.
Was running about 15 psi in my tubs to help get me out of the dip at the bottom of the circuit and certainly made a big difference on the wet corners. Just glad they stayed on!

Running rocket ron clinchers at 30psi front and 35psi rear, will go lower if it’s just grass with no roots or stones that are obvious, i’m 69Kg and don’t tend to smash it through things. They will feel soft and bouncy, but at that point the tyre is deforming to the ground therefore maximising grip.

Went 30 rear & just under 30 front today, tubeless. Could’ve gone a bit lower I think.

First picture published from today. Fighting face with my team mate close behind, (he got me with better technique around a 180 degree bend with 200 meters to go).

As for tyre pressure, up a couple of PSI today as there were a fair few faster corners and I felt that the front was a little too low yesterday.

I run tubs, so sub 30 is no issue on good cross courses, my pit wheels are clincher and they run in at around 32psi.

Haven’t tried tubeless but interesting that you can run tubeless at 30 John, sounds promising.

Had my first race of the season today on my new old bike. I managed to break the frame last year and the frame builder (also a good friend of mine) repaired it and resprayed it. Bought some new Hope wheels with Strans rims but unfortunately the LBS ran out of tape to run them tubeless so had to use innner tubes and with a high psi as the course was very rooty. Every corner was ‘interesting’ with the pumped up tires and after trying to push too hard I hit the deck hard and managed to pop out my calf muscle! After a bit of massaging I managed to push it back into place and got back on but lost about 10 places! Hopefully I’ll have better luck next weekend 😈 though my leg is still hurting like a good ‘un 😥

Here’s a mobile pic of the new bike taken yesterday on its maiden voyage. The decals are going on this week and the fork is being sprayed blue along with the stem the week after.

7th place today, bloody fantastic racing the whole way

7th here, bloody hard work though.

Got prize money as well.

Zappi’s Sunday. Sand and mud woooo hoooo 😐

hengrove in the western,expecting carnage with the rain were having

Great looking kit there oldgit!I want some. :O)

hengrove in the western,expecting carnage with the rain were having

Yup.. i’ll be there. Just put a clement pdx mud tyre on the front. Actually looking forward to it 🙂

keeping the cross king front speed king rear and see what floats its gonna be like being 10 and riding thro muddy fields
exept u have to deal with the misses not your mother

tricky whats your kit/ride? il watch out when u lap me 😛

hey.. I ride for VC Bristol. Nice course, had a good start (actually gridded for once) but couldn;t stay with the top 7 or so as they were just too strong. Think i just about bagged a top 10 but not sure

Ran a clement PDX clincher on the front. What a revelation. Really does rail round the corners very impressed. Put a latex tube in as well so i coudl run lower pressure. Back end was a bit squirmy as i had the grifo which isn’t known for it’s grip

wow tricky disco was that today? what a pleasant looking course and day. Reading cx today had huge rain shower and mud to tackle but a cracking course to slide your way round. could have done with that clemant pdx on some climbs though and some studs on my shoes to get up some of the other climbs…

7th place today, bloody fantastic racing the whole way
7th here, bloody hard work though.

Upgraded to 6th, that’s three 6th places on the bounce. Waiting to hear about today

Tricky – where did you get the photo from. I rode Hengrove today, top 7 sure were strong, good course except for the fricken headwind!

Ah yeah I see now u laped me a few time lmao pretty sure I was almost last but weel see lol whether was deff on our side bar the massive headwind I pretty much bonked on the last lap was getting funny spots in the vision not feeling 100% anyway did you get any more pics? I no mum got quite allot of all riders

Round 1 6th
Round 2 6th
Round 3 6th
Round 4 today guess what 6th.

Time for some devil horns for your helmet!

Guy called Andrew brimsonposted them on the velo club facebook page

yes, headwind was terrible that’s why i tired to grab someone’s wheel to recover on that section

Running two leagues here in Helsinki this year, we’ve got a race almost every week from now until just before Xmas, ace! One is more traditional/euro with a fair bit of grass though still enough rocks and roots to need higher pressures, and the first round I made it to included a couple of ride/run across the sandy beach of the island we were on sections… The other is entitled ‘cross where it doesn’t belong’ and the organisers delight in throwing rocky, rooty trails at you, sometimes jumps, properly steep offroad climbs and descents etc, and tons of fun rooty singletrack, great fun. And will get interesting as we get to late November and December and the temps can drop to minus 15 and the snow may or may not come… Lots of SSCX and fixiecross, a few monster cross, even one fatcross in this less traditional series!

Today (me above) was the first frosty race though still sunny, others have been in pretty hot sunshine for October, no rain yet 🙂 This disappointed the organiser who’d planned on a muddy quagmire by running through some bogs, only to have them frozen overnight, yay! Oh and I’m doing the same as Oldgit – 5th, 5th, and today thought I was 4th despite a cold all week and taking it easy the last few laps, but no, 5th again!

Plumpton on Saturday, put on by whitechalkhillscx for the 1st time. They definitely made the most of the available space, with plenty of futile zig-zags, a bumpy lumpy field & a spiral through the farm yard with gas cylinders for cowbells 😀

Weather was horrible. Mid pack finish in vets again & only singlespeed (again).

I might try Finland.

No result up yet (I have seen?), would like to think I had a decent result.

Brutal as always round Hengrove – I think I may have some footage of you/us going over the first rail.

atleast i have a training loop over the road from my house now lol dident no the cource before

No result up yet (I have seen?), would like to think I had a decent result.

what kit/team are you in?

john_l – this coming weekend is, as well as a normal ‘less traditional’ round, it’s the fixie cross “national championships” (or fixed cx and beer drinking gathering) so there’ll be plenty of fixed, SS and other weirdness, and the promise of a course from hell 🙂

And a couple of pics from a more traditional snowy round a few years back:

Come join us!

VC Montpellier – Hoping 4th but might be completely wrong

looks like the western results are up i seem to have betterd myself abit sins 1st race gone from 2nd from last to 10th from last 😆
still im happy with that

Techmechs.. looks like you got 3rd in Seniors

DO you by any chance know Mike ward? Sure he used to ride for you guys (now with 24/7)

No – I know of him but dont know him – I’ve only been riding for VC-M this season.

I was pretty pleased with 4th(3rd), thats a handy result coming from last years top15 results I was having. Although Hengrove does suit me as a course.

Anyone racing Western League, Netham Park, on the 27th? I’ve not ridden the venue before, is it any good?