Cyclocross - CX and SSCX races and training

You look like you have The Fear.

There's all sorts of gurning going on in the - trust me, I was having fun.

Quality. I'll have two of whatever you've taken.

one new chain, one new rear mech and a morning of cleaning, hanger aligning and regreasing and my bike is almost as good as before thursday.

Pretty much had to rebuild mine. Kept on finding new pockets of mud. This was after a jet wash.

A jet wash is only useful for clearing mud, you still need to wash the bike as normal afterwards.

Yah. Jet wash only useful in getting the bike into a state where you can bring it in the house. Clean + full service or it all seizes up.

I put off cleaning mine and went for a ride on the road bike instead. I'll probably regret this.

Sadly, you probably will.

Depends on how you feel about purchasing and fitting replacement bearings, chains and cables :-P

Pah, my cross country bike practically lived in that state. Until everything broke and now it sits there unusable.

...wait a minute.

Luckily my chain is already in the bin at Herne Hill, along with my rear mech - which means the rear mech cable has been removed already.

I did give it a hose down after the 'race' and have now brushed off most of the mud, so I think I've gotten away with it.

On a different note, would a SS MTB actually be any good for muddy CX? I have a MTB with horizontal dropouts and I'm considering giving it a whirl on the next really muddy course.

Put some skinny mud tyres on it then maybe

That's now my plan for giving cross a go in the winter - find some 26x1.5 muds or something and have a go. I've even got a set of steel rigids I could stick on.

@Howard

Tubeless - I'd lean towards the tubeless ready / specific tyres. Racing Ralphs or Specialized tracers.

Are you sure about the latter? All mention I've seen suggests they don't work with tubeless rims and they are not on the definitive List (the CX Magazine one).

Fresh for 2014 - 2Bliss Tracer Pro. I'd certainly give it a crack - it's a great all rounder. Might be worth asking the Concept Store to get them in, and be really specific that they must be the 2Bliss version.

@BareNecessities Zero racecraft [on my part] on display on my first lap of Herne Hill last week
. LOLz.

Every race I've done has seen basically the entire pack bugger off on lap one, then I spend the next hour chasing everyone down.

Number 86 has a lot of work to do on his remount technique.

So do I, sadly. How do I shed the 'double hop'?

Cheers.. ah, so that's where it goes.

Looks grim.

Are there any skills/training days in September?

Didn't Howard mention a Central League training day some time in September?

I believe Jason is running a couple of training sessions on the next couple of Thursday evenings; this Thursday, the 21st, at HH, then the following Thursday, the 28th, at Bethlem.

Why do I not know of the training day this Thursday?

Central league day is the 31st August

@Howard - I'm not sure I can forgive Specialized for the 2Bliss branding.

I've a pair of the Tracer tubulars, picked up cheaply from Sigma, and they were very capable all rounders.