Joe Biker

(I used to hate this bike)

Let me save you another season of dreading flats, rolled tires, tangled chains, and bent shifters because you can’t bear the thought of jumping on your P-O-S pit bike.  First off, your poor pit bike is a decent bike.  You just treat it like it’s the nerd of all your bikes.  After I got my custom Indy Fab Planet X, my Jamis Nova hit the “D” list in my stable.  Last year I moved it up to “B” list status by getting the fit and feel as close to the IF as possible.  Better yet, it became an advantage in races, rather than a last resort and didn’t cost a whole lot to do it.  Keep in mind, fit and feel is more about how you feel on the bikes, not so much how the bikes handle the terrain.  Pay more attention to the areas where your body touches or is affected by the bike.  Before September is the time to get crackin’ on your CX rig setup.  CX stuff is stacking up in the shops and you’ll most likely get first dibs on your friends old parts if you start asking around now.  Rather than upgrading your race rig, it might make more sense to make both bikes as similar as possible.

It paid off in places for me.  Last year at a race in Louisville, my Planet X had succumbed to the weight of the mud and shifting issues.  I had dropped from about 5th to 10th.  When I ditched my custom IF in favor of the clean Nova, in a lap or two I gained back a few spots.  The Nova felt great.  While an old Jamis Nova is sub-standard compared to an IF Planet X, just having the bikes set up as closely as possible to each other made the transition between the two nearly seamless in regards to fit and feel.  When your race rig has chain suck and is covered in five pounds of mud, a clean Jamis Nova becomes the better bike.  Moreover, the pit bike helped me in the race instead of being an “in case of disaster” fall-back.  While pro’s like Katie Compton may have 4 identical CX bikes, and a dashing hubby/mechanic to boot, here’s some tips to get your bikes set up as closely as possible without spending a lot of money or trying to break up the nicest couple in bike racing. 

TAPE MEASURE

Get the cockpits to feel the same.  Take measurements from your race bike and transfer them to your pit bike.  Be patient.  Measure twice.  Don’t rush.  This is best done on a rainy afternoon in August.  For a good fitin the legs, measure from the top of the saddle (where the post would intersect if it went through the saddle) down to the center of the pedal axle.  To match the reach, measure from the same point on the saddle to the center of your handlebars.  Take it a bit further, measure the drop between the top of your saddle and the top of your bars.  You don’t want to feel stretched out on one bike and cruched up on the other.  Make adjustments with spaces under the stem of your pit bike.  To really dial it in, you may need a different size stem.  Email your buddies or check the used part bin at your local shop.  Chances are you’ll be able to do it for free or for a few bucks.

YOUR TUSH AND GRIP

If possible, get the same handlebars and saddles for both bikes.  Put the same bar tape on both bikes.  Remember we’re trying to get both bikes to fit and feel as identical as possible.  Besides bar tape is cheap.  If it’s not possible to get matching seats and bars because you splurged on carbon bars for your race rig with your government surplus check, at the very least have the same size bar and a similarly shaped saddle on both bikes.  If you can swing it, find a bar that has the same anatomical shape for your pit bike.  Weight isn’t as important as the fit and feel.  While you may not be able to put $250 Fizik Aliante’s on both bikes, the Fizik Vitesse is pretty much the same shape and retails for under $90.  Still too much?  Check with your friends or local shop to see if you can scare up a used one.  I bought a used Aliante last year for $50 from a buddy.  While it’s a bit squeaky, it works.  Selle Italia Flight saddles have been around since the dawn of time and there’s always a used one in someone’s basement.  Ask around, you’ll be surprised how many people hate the saddle shape you love and have a spare in their parts bin.

LEVELING WITH THE LEVERS

I used to have front and rear top of bar brake levers on my race rig and none on the pit bike.  That was a big reason I hated riding the Nova, the brake setup was completely different.  For just a few bucks in new cables and housing you can split your 2 levers between both bikes, so both bikes are identical.  While it could take a whole blog entry to explain, on both bikes I only run one top of bar lever on the left side controlling the rear brake.  While you may have Dura Ace shifters on your race bike, used Tiagra will have the same feel at a fraction of the cost for your pit bike.  If you don’t run a front derailuer and just have a brake lever on the left hand side, do the same on your pit bike.  Don’t worry about buying a set of right and left, you can run a right hand brake-only lever on the left side with a little finesse of the cable routing.  Besides, making things work is half the fun of cyclocross.

THE INSEAM

The only difference in feel between my two bikes last year was that the Nova had FSA 175mm cranks and the IF had new Ultegra 172.5’s.  I could really notice the difference in length between the bikes.  You might have to make a call on this one.  While I’m in the process of switching out the 175’s for 172.5’s, some may argue that having longer cranks on the pit bike may be beneficial late in the race when your legs get tired and you could use the added benefit of having more leverage on the cranks.  However, I’m going to err on the side of having both bikes fit and feel as close as possible and install a set of old Ultegra 172.5’s on the pit bike.  Keep in mind, with cranks it’s relatively unimportant to match the brand.  The same length is what you’re after.

The Rest of the Bike

You could go all crazy and put identical tires on both bikes or run the same brakes and fork.  However, that’s less about fit and feel and more about handling and performance.  If you get the fit and feel dialed in and at least make the gearing the same, you’ll never dread jumping on your heavy knicked-up nerdy P-O-S pit bike this season.  When you’re done, if you can close your eyes and swing a leg over both bikes and not be able to feel the difference between the two, your pit bike will become an advantage this season.

Tags: Cyclocross, cross, cx, pit, bike, set, up, ovcx, series, UCI, Louisville, Cincinnati, Ohio, Valley, race, races, racing

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