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What was your first cyclocross bike?
Curious to know what was your first 'cross ride?
I'll start - after riding my mtb for a bit in races, I had a zebrakenko that took 27" wheels, and had a mix of suntour and dia compe on it, including sidepull brakes. I think somehow I got some specialized 27" tricross tires on it. It since has gotten canti braze ons on the rear (via Rhygin), gone through three forks up front, and is on its third paint job since I bought it used. Now the gear cable housing stops routings and hanger are cut off (via Rock Lobster). With its horizontal drops, it still sees limited singlespeed use.
My first real cx bike was a lugged steel Moser frame and fork, Suntour XC pro cantis, SRAM 9.0 SL mtb brake levers modified to be inline, Ultegra brake levers, sachs quartz road front and rear derailleurs, Mavic Reflex clincher wheels with DA hubs (I still ride those wheels on my commuter), green Michelin Muds Selle Italia Turbomatic saddle. I can't for the life of me remember the crank, but for some reason I think it was an Suntour XC Pro 110 BCD. Here's a pic:
It handled a few New England seasons, lots of snow riding, '98 nats (devens) and '99 nats (presidio) and a mess of Kauai mud. Mud clearance wasn't great. My teammate had the same frame but in a much smaller size. Pontoni asked to use it as his backup bike for the Supercup but frowned so badly when he picked it up. It wasn't light. But he still took it to the pit.
Where is it today? I remember selling it to a guy in the parking lot of the Westin Ski Track after a day working there. It's funny how those are the types of days I regret the most. Selling a bike? Not usually a smart thing for a bike geek unless you really hate it. I'd love to have it back. Oh, the memories! I saw one on eBay a month ago and was tempted to buy it but know it wouldn't be the same.
Post yours...new or old, let's hear some stories. It's kinda like your first love, right?
I'll start - after riding my mtb for a bit in races, I had a zebrakenko that took 27" wheels, and had a mix of suntour and dia compe on it, including sidepull brakes. I think somehow I got some specialized 27" tricross tires on it. It since has gotten canti braze ons on the rear (via Rhygin), gone through three forks up front, and is on its third paint job since I bought it used. Now the gear cable housing stops routings and hanger are cut off (via Rock Lobster). With its horizontal drops, it still sees limited singlespeed use.
My first real cx bike was a lugged steel Moser frame and fork, Suntour XC pro cantis, SRAM 9.0 SL mtb brake levers modified to be inline, Ultegra brake levers, sachs quartz road front and rear derailleurs, Mavic Reflex clincher wheels with DA hubs (I still ride those wheels on my commuter), green Michelin Muds Selle Italia Turbomatic saddle. I can't for the life of me remember the crank, but for some reason I think it was an Suntour XC Pro 110 BCD. Here's a pic:
It handled a few New England seasons, lots of snow riding, '98 nats (devens) and '99 nats (presidio) and a mess of Kauai mud. Mud clearance wasn't great. My teammate had the same frame but in a much smaller size. Pontoni asked to use it as his backup bike for the Supercup but frowned so badly when he picked it up. It wasn't light. But he still took it to the pit.
Where is it today? I remember selling it to a guy in the parking lot of the Westin Ski Track after a day working there. It's funny how those are the types of days I regret the most. Selling a bike? Not usually a smart thing for a bike geek unless you really hate it. I'd love to have it back. Oh, the memories! I saw one on eBay a month ago and was tempted to buy it but know it wouldn't be the same.
Post yours...new or old, let's hear some stories. It's kinda like your first love, right?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Brian on
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My favorite cross bike is the only one i"ve ever had - my 2007 Felt F1X. It's not the quickest steering or lightest bike that I own, but it was and is my first and only cross bike and I don't see ever parting with it. If anything, in the coming years it'll become my B bike. It's seen cross races, road miles, urban miles, commuting miles. It's a great bike.
It's seeing some nice upgrades this year including, Easton EA70x tubular wheels, Challenge Grifos, white Kore Race+ brakes, white Ritchey 4-Axis stem, and Gore ride on cables. I'm also losing the bar top brake levers and am either going to run a single chainring or am going to at least switch the 36 out for a 38 so that I've got a 38-46. I can't wait to have it all together! Six weeks and counting in TN till our first race of the season!
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Permalink Reply by dhw on
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First attempt was on a Giant 12 speed made of about 35lbs of steel! Thought it might be fun until the first carry up a 30 step cement staircase!!!! Oh yeah handling was not what you would call fine either as I found out on the first off camber turn!!! Made a pledge to not race cross again until I had a REAL cross bike! The giant is now my daily commuter and I race a Steven's with a single ring setup with full campy! Now that's a CROSS BIKE!
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Permalink Reply by Jeremy on
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My first pseudo cross bike was a taiwanese made bianchi road bike with green michelen clinchers. the tires barely fit under the brakes and it had terrible mud clearance. I had fun racing it though. Then I stepped away from cycling and gained 100lbs....
Fast forward 12yrs later, I've been back on the bike for approx 3 yrs, lost 60lbs of the 100 I gained and even raced cross last year. I first raced on my old Ritchey P21 with Conti 1.5's on it. Then in the middle of the season, I built myself my first true purpose built cross bike. I put it up in the gallery a week ago.
I've had 2-3 races on the new bike and a lot of singletrack riding on it. I absolutely love the new bike!!!
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Permalink Reply by Mabh on
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mine was a red, no-name brand that my then-bf brought over from Switzerland. I'm pretty sure he found it in his basement and it may in fact have belonged to his father... it died when the top tube decided to un-weld itself over one winter.... It was a size 56 - entirely tooooooo huge for me - I ride a 53 cross bike and 54 road bike and yet, I manged not to kill myself. The bruises were interesting though!
I moved up to a Jake the Snake and rode that for a while, switching over to carbon fibre Blue CXC a few years ago...
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Permalink Reply by J.D. Kimple on
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Let's see... my first "cross" bike was a Miyata 110 that someone had set out by the curb for trash. Frame, fork, stem, bars, sidepulls. This was about 2003 I think. I bought some Vredestein Campos off fleaBay and built it up. fork was bent. With a big hunk o' pipe I tweeked it pretty much back in line. I had an RSX crank that was a 46-36 and I swaped the 46 for a 52 because I was too cheap to buy a triple setup (so yeah, I has a 52/36 "compact" before it was "introduced to the marketplace". Barcons, Shimano derailers, Mavic MA-40s on Campy Recod hubs with a 6-speed freewheel. Shimano medium-reach 600 single pivots. I put new Shimano brake pads on it and was terribly dissapointed, went back to the old dried-out hard-as-a-rock brake pads. I rode it all over as we lived in the Upper Penninsula of Michigan at at the time, and there's two-track and snowmobile trails all over up there and a few really cool MTB trails. No real racing, but lots of fun. Sold it when I moved back to Ohio (ugh!)
So last year I thought I'd buy a new 'cross bike and actually race. I, too, bought a Mongoose Croix Comp from Performance. It was a screaming deal, really. I've since swapped the front der for a 105 model, went to a long cage Deore rear that is old enough it was the "touring" group, 11-32 cassette for the times on the MTB trails and swapped the 50t chainring for a 46. New handlebars, too - Planet X Anatomic Pros. I've raced it a few times, ridden MTB trails on it lots of times, several centuries and long rides of unknown mileage and plan on racing it this upcoming season
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Permalink Reply by fastMB on
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i had converted a specialized sirrus road frame. dented the chainstays for tire clearance, had bosses brazed on. must have weighed 25 lbs. raced in draper utah with snow and mud flying, got hooked.
luckily i worked in a shop built a franken mtb/cross bike using spinnergy 700c wheels. next came a silk warrior, now commuter (rocking rival). then a ridley raced 2 seasons broken in the garage. now i have 2 cx9 Cdales in total i have raced about 6 seasons. roll on the No Cal season!
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Permalink Reply by Ryan Cousineau on
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First race was on my hardtail MTB, just like everybody else. Then I put inverted-tread 28mm hybrid tires on my road racing bike (pretty good clearance on that frame), and went racing. Worked remarkably well right up until it rained. Then it worked very badly. Back to the MTB...
First dedicated CX bike was this ugly early-80s steel road bike conversion:
It worked very well, but I eventually bought a Nashbar "X" frame. Cheap and practical, but mine was one of the stupid 135mm-spaced frames (they're 130 now).
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Permalink Reply by Chris Fly on
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First cross bike was a Giant TCX that I threw road tires on... first cross I raced was my Salsa Las Cruces, just swapped the parts from that to a new-to-me Van Dessell Gin & Trombones and the first race is Sunday!
First proper cross bike...
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