Shane Gibson
James (et al),
I did CX for the first time ever last year. I too raced the whole season on
my full suspension (cross country race) bike. Personally - I thought my
suspension (stiffened up with high air pressure, etc...) was a significant
benefit to most of the courses through out the year. A lot of the sections
bounced apart the poor buggers on CX bikes - while I hammered through
them. Of course, on the long smooth flat sections, a lot of them could
sprint away a little faster than me ... But that was probably my (lack of)
conditioning, more than anything!
Initially - I ran 2.1" WTB Weirwolf (tubeless) tires - which are fast
rolling, quality MTB tires (in my estimation). However - they SUCK (I mean
SUPER SUCK) big time for muddy - which is often a large part of CX.
I then switched to Continental Cross Country (1.5" clincher for 26"
wheels). I ran that on the back for traction, then I ran a Schwalbe CX Pro
(1.35" clincher for 26" - tubeless) on the front. The 1.35" on the front
was ... sketchy to me - and had very poor traction in loose or muddy
conditions. On a hard pack dry course, it's a great tire up front. I also
burped the tire off of the rim in a high speed corner. I think my rims are
just too wide to hold that skinny of a tire on (19mm internal width of the
rims).
I put another Continental Cross Country 1.5" on the front for the second
half of the CX season - and never looked back. Very fast rolling and
versatile tire - worked really well. In fact - it worked so well, that I
often race in MTB races with the Conti 1.5" tires front/rear. They shave
1.5 pounds off of the casing weight of my traditional tire choice for racing
- so the low rolling weight allows me to ride really fast. Of course, some
high speed cornering in loose conditions can be sketchy - but in longer
races, I think it's worth it.
I ran the Conti's tubeless for about two weeks - but they wouldn't hold
pressure (even with Stan's) for more than a few hours. Not sure if I
bungled something - or they just don't hold air well on a wide rim in a
tubeless set up... I ended up throwing in an appropriate tube in them,
which worked just fine. You can run these tires from 30 to 70 PSI - which
allows you to customize the pressure to the course - hard fast low rolling
resistance VS. loose/muddy and high traction requirements.
Don't let the aggressive pattern/lugging of the Conti fool you - it's also a
pretty damn fast rolling low resistance tire with a little more air pressure
in it - which still maintains aggressive traction when needed. All-in-all,
I think it's an exceptional tire for MTB bikes in a CX course.
A good source for CX tires with a lot of 26" wheel choices can be found at:
http://www.biketiresdirect.com/search/cyclocross-tires
Best of luck - you will be hooked, and the sickness will permeate your life
... ! Come January - you'll suffer a deep depression, pining away for more
CX racing ... until the MTB season picks up again ...
v/r
Shane
--
"Opportunities multiply as they are seized." - Sun Tzu
On Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 6:10 PM, James Sunderland <
james.sunderland@comcast.net> wrote:
> I'm thinking of trying out cyclocross with my mountain bike. Any tire
> recommendations?
>
> James
>
>
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