Cyclocross: all of the faff

Here's a little film from Dave Haygarth featuring the two of us faffing. A lot...

It’s the National Championships at the weekend, and time to reflect as the season approaches its finale.

Cyclocross is a strange sport. It breeds and harbours obsessives. For a discipline that involves belting around muddy fields, there is an inordinate amount of fine-tuning, preparation and finesse… from the meticulously exact tyre pressures for the conditions in the correct tubulars with the correct tread, to the perfecting of the right line on the course recce at 8am in -2°C. The right clothes, the right food, just enough sleep, the right warm-up… the training, the bike fettling, and even the Dirt Bags to make sure we clean off properly after a play in the mud.

This short road movie is about all of the faff of cyclocross for team mate Alan Dorrington and I as we covered the northern half of England in the final three rounds of British Cycling’s National Trophy series.

Yeah, we raced, too. But that was just for a few minutes every fortnight.

Countdown to the Peaks

I hate this period, with about a week to go, when you are just sitting around waiting for it to happen.

I'm not robust enough to undertake and recover fully from any further hard training, though I might race cross this Sunday just for the intensity, though for me I risk being a little tired still by the Wednesday before Peaks Sunday.

It's just a matter of sorting equipment, clothing, nutrition for the day, as well as looking after body and soul as best as one can. Germ avoidance is the biggy - I enter a state of horrible paranoia around now, jumping when anybody sneezes around me and praying my kids don't commune with the walking pathogens in their respective schools. That my wife is a Teaching Assistant in a third school doesn't help either.

Whilst I am almost always a positive sort of soul, the Peaks eats away at your psyche and all sorts of doubts can invade your head, most irrational, some real enough and none of them helpful. It can be an effort dealing with them all. It's not that the Peaks is impossibly tough, though it is hard, nor unfeasonably dangerous. It is just 'the Peaks' - it has an aura.

Social media doesn't help these days - someone's bound to have a cold, an injury or their own demons that they share with the world. I'm no different but I'll struggle with my own issues thanks.........

As to bikes, this year I have what I consider to be my ultimate set up, and along with team mate Dave, possibly the best bikes in the race full stop.

As ever I will go for a 2 bike strategy, changing either after Peak 1, Ingleborough or at Ribblehead after Peak 2, Whernside, depending on how I feel. Both bikes are set up for specific purposes - bike 1 for the more runnable, and less rocky terrain of Ingleborough and bike 2 specifically for Penyghent with it's long grinding but more rideable climb and slightly frightening rollercoaster and rocky descent.

Bike 1:

So bike 1 is a standard On One Dirty Disco with the new Disc and Canti Pro Carbon wheels. It has a mix of SRAM Rival and Force parts with bar top levers, 32mm FMB tubs with Racing Ralph treads and a bottom gear of 36x28. Carbon wheels?! For the Peaks? Well, yes. They are super light which will be appreciated on the mega steep Simon Fell, strong enough for what is one of the less rocky and boggier descents and just roll nicely everywhere else. I may continue on to Whernside with this bike, as again it is one of the steeper walking climbs. Coming down Whernside is ofter people's nemesis - I don't find it too bad and have other non-rocky options for route choice anyway.....

 Bike 2:

Bike 2 is a Planet X proto Titanium disc frame and beautifully comfortable. This bike sports much lower gearing, 34x34 (using a WiFli mech that will go on after racing this weekend), bar tops levers again as well as traditional alloy tub wheels with fatter 34mm Gommitalia tubs for the rougher climb and descent where punctures when tired are a real risk. SRAM Red parts complete the package for what is for me the best suited cross bike I've ever ridden round the Peaks.

There we go - equipment excuses effectively ruled out, it's down to me....

Planet X Cyclocross Disc and Canti Pro Carbon 50/50 tubular wheels

Bit of a rare animal these......

Going disc AND tubular last year forced me and Dave Haygarth to get our own deep section carbon wheels sorted. There just weren't any decent options out there without spending silly money. Cue ensuing ebay shenanagins and some chunky though strong 50mm rims with Novatec hubs arrived for building at the local bike shop. Nice, perfectly adequate but a bit heavy and workmanlike even with 20 hole front and 24 rear, both laced 2X.

Enter Planet X with their usual eye for value and performance and we have the Disc and Canti Pro Carbons - lighter, faster and most probably stronger too. Both front and rear have 24h rims (also 2X), the same rim as on their newest version of the legendary 50mm Pro Carbon wheelsets, 6 bolt hubs and black double butted Pillar spokes. All for £450 £499 They also have the same proprietary braking surface as the road wheels meaning you can swap between bikes if you're not completely converted to disc.

How do they feel compared to my ebay versions? Not like their  original Clydesdale name - they are much lighter and snappier, retaining all the stiffness of my DIY wheels. I don't know what the exact weight is but it must be around about 1500grams, maybe less - their road cousins come in at about 1400grams. They feel, and are, like light race wheels despite their moniker - quick to pick up, responsive when getting out of the saddle, solid.

Gluing up was a dream - the braking surface, a matt finish, extends to the rim bed and gives a perfect surface to lay the glue onto. The profile is fairly shallow too making it easier to seat the tub and glue to the all important edges where adhesion is needed to make them stick right.

They'll be getting a full test shortly so I will report back.

FMB Super Mud review

This Autumn saw the arrival of the much heralded FMB Super Mud tubular. For several seasons now, I had been gathering my own and others Dugast Rhino treads (as well as some carefully preserved green Michelin mud treads) and sending them away to Francois at FMB for recasing.

The rationale behind this was that although Francois makes the best (yes, better than Dugast) cross tubs available on the planet, his SSC, Fango and Grippo XL treads were great, but not according to conventional wisdom, as great as the imperious Rhino mud tread.

Much excitement then when US cross legend Molly Cameron sent me over the summer, a top-secret spy shot from Francois of the new FMB tread - destined as a Rhino-killer.

Molly confirmed what I had been hoping - that Francois had upped his game and met the Rhino hegemony head on. In the shot, the tread looked like a direct Rhino copy, with extra hooks on simply to avoid copyright type issues.

In the flesh, the tread is something different altogether. First impressions when the box arrived, to be eagerly ripped open, was of a quite different tread in many respects. Yes, the familiar arrows are there, but tipped with an extra barb at the bottom, they take on a different aspect. More importantly, they are much finer than on a Rhino - thinner and smaller and slightly shorter in height.

The attention to detail in construction is where the FMBs shine over Dugast - this year Francois has been adding an extra layer of material onto which the base tape is sown. This thickens and protects the most vulnerable part of a cross tub, the base tape/rim interface. This is where most tubs rot out, Dugast sometimes in only a season or so, even when Aquasealed. Not only does Francois factory proof his tubs with a substance that lasts longer than Aquaseal anyway, but this double layer near the basetape extends their durability by at least a season, meaning you may be able to get 3 seasons use with normal care and attention. It is for this reason alone, as well as the stronger materials used generally that I firmly believe FMBs are the best artisan cross tubs in the world, beating offerings from Dugast with ease.

The other significant difference is in the orientation of the side knobs. This is where I believe Francois has really done his homework. And possibly, if I may flatter myself slightly, as a result of the legion of green Michelin Mud treads I had been sending his way for conversion. As any green Mich Mud user knows, their grip is spectacular - as good or better than a Rhino. And they will also know from experience that much of this superior grip is down to the mud shedding abilities of the green tread against the Rhino which has a tendency to ball up. Balled up tires = ballsed up cornering as no matter how grippy at first, the treads begin to loose their awesome bite.

This has certainly been borne out by my own unscientific testing of both types in training and racing - Rhinos are superb in wet, greasy and sloppy conditions. But they loose their edge when things get stickier......

So how has Francois adapted a successful formula to his own ends and to what effect?

Well, he has clearly studied the green treads I kept sending him in the post - green treads have a concentration of knobbles toward the outer edge keeping the mid flanks of the tub a little clearer and allowing not only the predictable grip in cornering but also allowing the tread to shed mud as it things thicken up. Looking at a Super Mud in profile, that same double row of knobs close to the very edge of the tread is present, and the gaps are slightly bigger than on a Rhino tread. Using smaller, finer knobs is a also a winner - it allows equally competent grip but aids that all important shedding process.

The result?

Grip in wet slop is every bit good as a Rhino, and arguably as good as a green Michelin FMB conversion. But if things stick up a bit, then that awesome grip remains as it does with a green FMB, whilst the Rhino begins to struggle and slide away.......

This incredible grip combined with the construction and durability advantages outlined above make the Super Mud an absolute winner, and indeed what I had hoped for - a Rhino killer.

There are other great mud tubulars out there - think Specialised Terra or Challenge Limus - but if you are looking for the ultimate handmade quality and performance that you previously thought was only available with a Dugast Rhino, then I think you may have found your choice.

FMBs are hard to come by in the UK but cross promoter, importer  and general gruff Derby man John Holmes can set you up - call him on 07946 461972 to see what he can do.

Update from the Disco.

I reported recently on the arrival of a new kid on the cross block, the full carbon, disc only Dirty Disco from On One.

Available as a frame and fork package or a SRAM Rival build, I've been riding and racing the Disco for a bit now and have splashed out on that rarity, for now, carbon tubular disc wheels too. Suffice to say, my initial positive impressions have been reinforced and the party is in full swing now.........

The Disco originally came via the On One test team (aka Dave Haygarth) with a zero lay back seat post and short 100mm stem. It made the handling vivid but slightly ungainly to ride for my lanky 6' 5" frame, especially as the frame is actually a L/56cm rather than the biggest XL/58cm size. That said, with a 120mm stem, and seatpost with average layback, I have recreated the position on my previous Uncle John frames even though they are actually XL in size.

This is in large part due to the pretty tall headtube and relatively long toptube - in other words this is quite a large 56cm frame. If you see what I mean. I fits me fine, even at my height and the smaller frame than i might normally ride, merely sharpens the handling with no trade off in comfort.

Apart from emphasising the stealth, weapons grade impression of the already naked carbon frame, the unbadged rims and Novatec disc hubs that I sourced from Hong Kong and built up for less than £250 have turned it into a full on race machine. More on that in a bit.

That said, I've ridden the Disco on the road quite a bit (mostly with my son) and it makes a great mile eater - stiff, comfortable and agile in hilly terrain. Commuting duties would be dispatched with ease and aplomb on it, with the On One 29er XC QR wheels giving flexibility for road, hybrid and off road tires alike. The lower maintenance and wear of the discs versus caliper or cantilever brakes would be a real boon here during the winter months.

But you still have that option of taking it off road on rougher stuff too, mountain bike trails and the like, as it is supremely capable on really quite rocky terrain with the discs and that massive chunky fork with 1.5" bearings doing the work for you. 3 Peaks training has been put to bed till next year, but I can't wait to get it out on the trails and hills in East Lancs. Double bottle cage mounts add to it's flexibility as long ride off roader too.

But for now it's cross season, and that means 1 hour blasts around muddy parks and fields. With deep section carbon wheels and FMB Super Muds, the Disco is genuinely a real race contender. More than can be said for it's rider....

The first proper test, at the Pignut Hill, Northwich round of the NW Cross League showed up the ease with which the Disco handled deeper section, stiff carbon wheels. Sometimes when I've used carbons, the reduction in braking power on slippy rims and their stiffness can make the bike handle less confidently than when set up with more traditional alloy rims and tubs, particularly on the technical sections.

Discs take that all out of the equation - braking is the same or better than the best alloy rims, and the 2x lacing I chose for the wheels gave stiffness but compliance when it got twisty or bumpy. It was fantastic to have a point and shoot bike that you could throw into corners and descents. Confidence inspiring too for me, as blinding technical skills have never been one of my attributes.

As I reported on twitter the other day, the Disco has become the bike that just makes me giddy to get out and loon around on - off and on road. A great overall package and at £599 for frame and fork or £1499 for a SRAM Rival build like the one above, it's a great way to get into carbon for cross, something I must admit I hadn't really expected myself to want to do. Subsequent full builds from On One will no doubt come out next year - expect equally great value from them too.