We never get weather like this. It has been constantly raining, plus ice, the past 3 days. That is so unlike Kansas weather. It hardly ever rains all day like Seattle in the winter. Plus it is hovering just around freezing, so it is changing from wet to ice and back constantly. Half the time the roads are slick, then useable again, then bad. Not good conditions for outside bike riding.
But, on the upside, tomorrow is supposed to be the last day of this. I’ve been doing inside stuff, which isn’t stuff I like to do, but it is necessary. Just paid by car tags and have been catching up on bills, etc. Plus, bike work.
I still don’t have my cross bikes like I’d like them, but unless I feel like I’m a full time cyclo-x racer, they are fine. I glued a couple new tires on last night.
I’m thinking it is going to be pretty muddy up in Jingle Cross. It seems like everyone is going with less and less tread nowadays. I’ve never been upset with having a lot of tread. But there are so many choices. I still have a bunch of good tires left over from 3 seasons ago, so I’m using them now. They are 32 mm, not 33, but they are fine for now.
The “problem” with cross tires now is that there are so many choices. Too many. When is that a problem? Only when you’re not familiar with all the different tires and compounds, thus don’t know which to ride. It’s not like riding clinchers, where you’re changing them back and forth all the time. Once you glue on a tire, you’re not too big on tearing it off to try another one.
I guess the best option is having a good mud set on one bike and then a faster setup on your spare bike. But, I think I’ll just leave mud tires on all my wheels and make due for now.
Okay, back to the trainer again.
These are both FMB tires. The left is their mud tread and the right is some Michelin Mud tread I sent to FMB and were made custom. I have a few more of these and they work about as good as any tires I’ve ridden.
In the early 80’s I had a choice of Clement file on the front, and Clement Tractor on the rear. The Vittoria CX tires were not straight, if you could find them. Panaracer had a tire, but it had no grip, the compound was too hard. Then there were the Barums you and Kris would bring up to Ames. I remember the round lugs on the rear tires. That was it. I’d run some Specialized touring clinchers for training – not really CX tread. Maybe that was all the suppliers had at the time – O & O, Ten Speed Drive, or Bicycle Parts Pacific.
If there’s a tire being used, there’s always the “it” tire – the one that unless you have ’em the conventional wisdom says you can’t win. Back-in-the-day I raced my friend’s 125 roadracer after crashing my own motorcycle in practice. He didn’t have the “it” tires as they were insanely expensive and he was rather..well… cheap. My lap times were fast enough that post race all the top riders in this class came over to inspect the bike and tell me – “There’s no way you can do those lap times on THOSE tires!” If only I’d known!!! As they say, SHUT UP AND RACE. Thank gawd in cycling it’s still the legs, heart and lungs instead of the expensive equipment.
i know you cant and dont ride in ice.. nobody in their right mind would..but rain, all i read is how the belgium amatures train in the rain almost daily, and also from what i read thes guys are great bike racers..
The temp has been hovering right around the freezing point here, which means it’s easy to go from clear wet pavement to slick black ice which looks the same as clear wet pavement – then down you go. Prudence dictates staying indoors.
I think if it is muddy, you should have your pit bike with mud tires. There is high probably of flat tires/mechanical and you need to ride the pit bike. It sucks to do a lap with a bike without mud tires if you really need them. Anyway, I would glue two set of mud tires + one all-around.
Could have snowed for 5 days! Rd one vs winter=we win.