‘Cross Rider

What with it being the 3 Peaks Cyclocross Race in a couple of weeks, it was time to try riding the ‘cross bike offroad. Saturday afternoon I had a clear 3 hour slot, so I stripped the mudguards off, put some teeny knobbly tyres on, pumped ‘em up to 90psi, and headed out for the hills.

Some cyclocross bikes are built around a comfy steel frame with plenty of flex to take the sting out of the bumps (like a Surly Crosscheck for instance), but mines a Giant TCX race frame. This means it is aluminium, has fat tubes and is as stiff as very stiff thing. You can feel every individual blade of grass you ride over, well almost. What I am doing with such a frame I’m not sure, but I did get a special deal on it, and its day job is as a commuter bike, which it does just fine.

I took it on a regular mountain bike route, with one or two of the rockier descents avoided. It’s more than a year since I have taken it on a ride like this, like I said, it’s mainly a road commuter, with the occasional off road commute on some tame stuff and the odd winter cross race.

The bike was brilliant. Climbing was tough and sort of ‘singlespeedy’, no really low gears and a good chance of tyres spitting traction if you don’t keep your weight back. Pretty fast though. Descending is best done on the drops, which puts you in a nose down position which can be a bit alarming at first, especially on the steeper stuff. You soon get used to it and the bike feels very planted and controllable. Loose stuff is best taken at speed, false teeth removed in advance. I got a bit of backache and sore hands, but got down everything and climbed just about everything including some rock-steppy stuff. I covered quite a lot of ground in my 3 hours too. I’d better do another ride on it before the Peaks, if only to get my back and hands accustomed to it.

If I lived in a less rocky area, I’d spend a lot of time on a crosser. But I don’t, so there’s more smiles in riding the Inbred.