Knobbies on a road bike

PeterD — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 22:19:00 +0000

Have you seen knobbie tires on road bikes recently? It may not be a surprise if you did, as this is the season for them.

These bikes are called Cyclocross bikes, and it is a real sport with a race season and everything. Cyclocross races take place in the fall/winter on short courses (half mile to a mile long). The course is a mixture of dirt trails and paved surfaces, with barriers put in place to force the rider to dismount (watch a 3MB MPG format video of this), hence a bike that is a hybrid between a trail bike and a road bike is used. Similar to a criterium, riders race for between 30 minutes and an hour (depending on class). These races are very popular in Europe, but there are areas in the US (San Francisco, Boston, Seattle, Colorado, etc.) that have strong showings. More info on cross can be found at at this site.

Giant has been selling a cross frame for a few years now, but decided to sell a complete bike starting this year. We must have queried the guys at Giant a bit too much, so to shut us up they sent us a brand new bike to play with for a few weeks (hmm – not sure they considered the implications of the lesson they taught us…).

It is now built and I had the time to take it for a short ride today. It felt like a road bike on pavement, but had good traction when I took it out into the dirt. Brought back memories for me from when I was racing cross. Definitely making me look forward to finding the time next week to take it for a lap or two in Waterdog.

The bike is an awful lot of fun for $1200 (just add pedals and you are ready to ride). Actually, with a set of fenders or some racks/panniers, this bike also would make a good commuter bike or touring bike.

If you want to see a cross race in person, there is a local race series (Pilarcitos Cycling’s Bay Area Super Prestige Cylcocross Series) with a race this Sunday in Golden Gate Park and another on December 3 at Coyote Point. With the short courses, these races are very spectator friendly. And this demo bike may be out on the course this weekend…

Passion Trail Bikes, Belmont, CA - specialists in quality bike service and custom-built mountain bikes: Knobbies on a road bike

Knobbies on a road bike