Velo Club Moulin

Tuesday 24 June 2008

Jet lag and new cross bike dreaming

Jet lag works in mysterious ways. I'm convinced. Got back from Oregon Sunday, slept from 9pm to 8am fine Sunday night then last night woke up at 1am and was wide awake until 4am. The birds started singing at 2.45am (a bit early I thought) and the street's resident crow starting piping up from the street lamp outside my window not long after. Bastard.

Still, this gave me time to ponder about a new 'cross bike i'm hoping to acquire. I've got the tyres sorted - bagged some Tufo Flexus tubulars (grey 'uns in 32) from Sunnyside Sports whilst in Oregon. Tufo are the only 'cross tubulars without an inner tube which makes them super resistant to pinch punctures. I rode some Tufo's last season at the Carron Valley CX and survived with frequent bottom outs and no tears. They've a decent all round tread and are pretty light too, not as light as Dugasts but I can't afford those babies.

Don has pretty much convinced me that deep section carbon tubular wheels aren't the way to go for 'cross and I should instead go for superlight-ness and reliability. Mavic Reflex's are his suggestion, so i'm thinking some of these laced to DT 190 hubs 3 cross with aerolite spokes. Light but strong and much cheaper to replace the rims.

Next thing on my mind is the groupset. The bike tart in me would love to get Force Red, but i've heard mixed reports on the reliability of the double tap shifting for 'cross and it's flippin' expensive. Could wait for the improved Rival or Force to come out or do I wait for the new Dura Ace which looks the business, with hidden cable routing at the bars, lighter weight and stealth look? Not sure this will be out in time for the upcoming season. Or maybe Campy Chorus for super reliability and Italian pimpyness?

Any thoughts welcome..

3 comments:

chrisD said...

May I suggest you go Campy Centaur, virtually the same as Chorus and the saved money can be spent on a Record Titanium cassette!

crosser nut said...

http://plusalap.blogspot.com/

Thats what you want

andytrailfettler said...

ooooh, lots of carbon loveliness! Good to see there are others out there with a fetish for pimpy bikes!

Think i'm going to have to order my new cx bike v.soon - before all my cash gets sucked into new flat doing up type affairs.. eek!

Can't wait for the cx season to start. Cross specific drills start this week. yippeeeee!