Finally put my cyclocross bike together

[saratoga]

I had all the parts sitting in the closet in my office since December and got around to putting everything together. There's a 5,200 acre nature preserve around a huge resivor which is literally a ~5 minute ride from my house, so I threw the pedals from my road bike on and took it out for a ride.

It's geared pretty low, but I had no trouble keeping it around 20-23 on the road. The handling is slow and kind of squirrely in any turns with those knobby tires, but it isn't really made for that. Rode on some fire roads that were still pretty wet and soft from all the recent rain and it held its own very well... I was actually surprised at how fast it was off the pavement.

The frame is a Redline Conquest Pro (58cm) and it has a full SRAM Rival group with a cx specific crank. Mavic Aksium wheels and the rest of the stuff is Ritchey. My plan is to use this as the everyday bike and save the road bike for racing.

 

[btfarm]

How much does the whole package weigh Grady?

 

[saratoga]

It's pretty heavy compared to a road bike... just guessing, I'd say between 20-23#. The frame is welded AL tubing because it's made to be ridden off road. In comparison, my road bike weighs in at just under 15# with pedals.

The nice thing about it is that I can just put a set of road tires on it and have a heavy duty bike to train with and take out when the weather is bad without having to beat up the road bike, plus I can race cyclocross with it during the winter.