Crank Bros Candy SL's on sale!

Just grabbed a pair of Candy Sl's in blue for $46.20 plus $4 shipping.

Link

Tough to find a pair used at that price. Going to look pretty cool on my blue bike.

Raleigh Restoration

For the doubters/haters out there, check out the tire clearance! These are 700 x 35 tires, but in your defense they actually only measure 30mm wide. But this is CX not mountain bike racing.

Can someone remind me why centerpull brakes aren't more prevalent? They stop really well after putting new pads on and a hell of a lot easier to set up than cantilevers.

Also just ordered:

Still hunting for a pair of bar end shifters, will probably use SunTour's. Need an 8 speed cassette and a chain and a set of mtb pedals and I'll be set.

Getting ready for the season

Great article by CrossJunkie about getting ready for cyclocross. As well as some suggested workouts:

A few times a week, ride off road to work and back, instead of on the road (luckily I have the environment to do this). Need. Upper. Body. Conditioning. Plus the double training dose of Human Growth Hormone, or whatever my own legal and natural product is, won't go amiss.

http://crossjunkie.blogspot.com/2010/08/its-nearly-time.html


I’m planning on heading up to Folsom Lake this weekend, to putz around on some of the trails and fire roads up there, maybe practice some dismounts too.

PDX School of Cross

SSCXWC

Seattle, WA -  August 6, 2010 -- Low Pressure Promotions, LLC and Washington
Unified Single Speeders, LLC (WUSS) are excited to announce that the winner
of the Raleigh Bicycles Single Speed race at StarCrossed p/b Stanley - A
brand of PMI will automatically qualify for the final at the Single Speed
Cyclocross World Championships (SSCXWC). Seattle will be hosting SSCXWC on
October 23rd and 24th with qualifying for the championship held on Saturday,
October 24th.

Zac Daab, co-promoter of StarCrossed, boasted, "We now host the second most
important single speed cyclocross race in the world.  Avoiding the riggers
of the qualifying process for the final at SSCXWC could be quite an
advantage for the winner of StarCrossed (Single Speed)."

A limited number of riders will be given the privilege to race in the
championship race on Sunday, October 24th. Currently over 225 riders are
pre-register for the weekend's festivities so the qualifier is mandatory in
order to secure a spot in the race on Sunday, October 24th.  SSCXWC will be
offering "repechage" opportunities during the many events planned on
Saturday.  Winning the MFG Cyclocross SS race earlier on Sunday will be the
final qualifier.  The winner of StarCrossed Raleigh Bicycles Single Speed
race will avoid the stress and possible humiliation of the qualify process
set forward by WUSS. The winner will also be the new owner of a Raleigh
single speed frame.

For more information on StarCrossed:   www.starcrossedcx.com
For more information on Single Speed Cyclocross Worlds:   www.sscxwc.org

i want that: track dropouts with RD hanger

Saw these on eBay today, now I want to build a CX bike-----could be geared or SS.

link

Dear Velo-Orange,

Velo-Orange has some really interesting parts and can be a great place to find unique new parts for a bike thats being restored.

I've bought a number of parts from them in the past for various builds, and even put their square taper BB on my Cervelo P3 triathlon/time trial bike.

With that said, their prices and products can be ridiculous. Take this centerpull brake for example (image above): link $150 for a pair? This looks identical (as I'm sure it's supposed to) to a Mafac Racer brake. This is all well and good (this isnt a rant on copyright infringement) but $150??

This set of Mafac Racers just sold on eBay for $30 shipped.

These brakes sell all the time on eBay and at your local bike co-op. While Paul components may have started the trend of tweaking a tested design (of another Mafac brake) and tripling the price, at least Paul improved upon the design in a major way allowing for more adjustment.

I understand that having parts made and importing them can be an expensive process, but why recreate parts that are easily accessible and thus not too expensive?

Dura Ace / Open Pro wheelset

A pair of 700c Dura Ace/Open Pro wheels are now mine!

This is possibly one of the best sets of wheels out there. The wheelset is at home in a group ride or a cross course.

Because they are 700c (smaller than the 27" wheels that the Raleigh came with) I'll have more clearance for wider tires. While I think 32mm is a wide enough tire for cyclocross, I'll be doing some MTB duathlons on this thing too so I'm planning on getting either 700x34 or 700x35's.

The best part is I paid $60.

Reader Rig: 1979 Centurion Super Lemans

Jason saw my posts about the Raleigh cyclocross project, and sent me some info/pics of his Centurion cyclocross bike.

The message here is that for budget conscious riders, a cheap cyclocross bike isnt hard to do. Plus, don't forget cyclocross designed bikes are a rather new concept within the last fifteen years. Prior, guys like Jason and I were taking these old road bikes and retrofitting them to go offroad.

Excerpts from Jason's email: "It's set up for running around town now, but come Sept I'm gonna throw some knobbies on it and use it for my backup race bike. The MAFAC racers are dope, can't really make out what's on your Raleigh, but let's be honest all center pulls are decent enough for cross or commuting."

Jason's Blog: Het Malen

Vintage Cyclocross Poster

Just thought this was cool. link

Raleigh wrenching

Worked on the bike after work today:

It had old rusted cheap cottered cranks previously. What's worse is that I'm sure the previous owner didnt know or take the time to service them, because they wiggled like crazy in the BB. I initially tried tightening the BB cups without taking off the cranks, this didnt solve the problem.

I bought a set of Sugino VP cranks with a 130BCD pattern, and they had a gunmetal color paint over the top of them, not anodized. Using some paint remover, steel wool, scraper, soft rag and some metal polish I sparkled them up pretty well.Will get a 48t big ring when the season gets closer.

Getting off the cottered cranks was a chore, using Sheldon's tutorial was vital. . I ended up breaking off the threaded portion, drilling out the cotter pin, heating everything up with a torch and then driving it out with a punch. Then I removed the other side's BB cup so that I didnt have to remove both cotters.

Installed the old school Stronglight Competition BB that I bought for $2 and everything looks pretty good.

Cannot find a photo of the Sugino VP cranks online in the 130bcd pattern with the gunmetal paint, but they were hideous. Now, I think they look a lot like one of my most favorite cranks the Dura Ace 7400's.

Had the alloy pedals sitting in a box so decided to throw them on, will get some clipless in the near future.

Lastly, snapped a photo of the Wright's leather saddle I got off of eBay for $20 shipped. I'll use this saddle and seatpost for general cruising, but will switch back to the plastic/leather Turbo for cyclocross racing as I'll feel more comfortable abusing that one.

Raleigh Cyclocross

Here are some before pics of the Raleigh Grand Prix. Accumulating parts as we speak, I'm currently riding this bike everyday commuting to work, so cant have any downtime due to rebuilding.

Thus, I'm planning on amassing my parts, polishing what needs to be polished.

btw---have spent $122 thus far.

Pair of custom frames

Hardcore CX racers will always have at least two bikes built up alike so that they can swap bikes midrace and not miss a beat.

A pair of custom cyclocross frames are for sale, with such a purpose in mind.

Pretty cool.

Cyclocross FAQ

The most popular page on this little blog is also one of my first posts: the Cyclocross FAQ

Written in September of 2005, most of the content is still fairly accurate, though on my list is to make revisions.

Check it out and let me know what needs to be added or changed.

"Vintage" Cyclocross bike build

Moved back to Sacramento, got a job 3 miles from my house and thought I'd get a bike that I could ride to work that would double as a cross bike if I decide to do a few races this year.

I want to call it my "vintage cx bike" but "ghetto cx bike" probably explains my budget a little better.

Got it off of Craigslist for $60, needs new tires, and I'll probably paint it too cause I always like that.

It's a 1976 Raleigh Grand Prix. Pictures shortly.