Off Season Update

So Lindsay and I took a trip out to Australia last month just to get a touch of Aussie back in us, it was just over two years since we were there last. It was a 4 week trip that went pretty quick, by the time you run around seeing people the time does go quick. However we were aware of this so we committed most of the time with just family.

My big family

Just so you know, the bikes arrived safley in the cardboard boxes. Our first couple of days were spent at Lindsay's mum where we could recover from the jet lag, the weather was mild so no huge shock of a 35+ day. We welcomed the warmer temps but we were also glad it wasn't too hot on our first day, we experienced that once before where going from zero to 35+ is like jet lag on overtime. Then we moved onto Melbourne for 4 days to stay with my little sister, also caught up with my 3 brothers that live also in Melbourne. My sister lives in the east of Melbourne so with the Dandenongs being so close, we couldnt resist a ride up there, and it was great to ride uphill. We even got to go out on the Thursday shop ride (though it used to be Wednesday's I thought) from O'Mara Cycles and also ventured down to our old local Carnegie club Sunday crit race. It was a little nervous a first riding in the city again, but it's something I also miss, there's always something to keep your mind busy.

Next we headed off to my parents in Warrnambool, but not before a slight detour past the spot where Lindsay and I were first intoduced, in Portarlington, and it was here I proposed, she said yes.

So now with a big shining rock on Lindsay's finger we headed onto Warrnambool where we would spend the next 4 days before going back to Lindsay's mums for another couple of days. Then it was time to see Lindsay's dad, and we spent this time on the river. For those that don't know, Lindsay comes from a waterski background and the idea of spending a week on the river watersking is like me spending a week riding in the hills somewhere.

So Lindsay's dad rented a house boat, and it was great, the house boat on the bank, some skiing, bbq dinners, swimming and just a good relaxing week, and good to see Lindsay back on the water. Swim shorts and a pair of thongs was the dress code all week.

After this great week it was off back to Warrnambool for Christmas, and my whole family was together which was great. It was our first Christmas home since leaving for Europe. We once spent Christmas in Austria and have had the rest at home with just the two of us, so it was great being surround by the whole family, only problem was I ate too much. But a bike ride soon fixed that, I always ride Christmas day and Boxing day.

                              Myself, my two brothers Peter and Chris and brother inlaw Colin
                                                         out for a ride on Boxing Day.

With our belly's full of Christmas meals it was back to Lindsay's mums for our last 3 days, another Christmas meal. We took a short trip to see some of Lindsay's other family members on her dads side and to see some of her good friends, other than that we had some packing to do. So that was basically our trip, very busy but also great, great to have a summer, eat a meat pie, have fish n chips on the beach and everything else Aussie.

So I just returned last week from a epic drive (more later) from Norway to collect the truck so I can start to prepare for the coming season. January for me is a time when lots of emails go back and forth regarding equipment and travel plans. I go through all my small spare parts as well as my tools to see what needs updating, and this year I had to order some new ones as well as replace some worn out items. The bike frame varies a great deal from manufactures in regards to headsets and bottom brackets, and although I'm working with Ridley again, the ever changing bike industry always makes you keep up to date with your tools. But you can never have too many tools and to do the job right you need the right tools I say. I also prepare my garage ready so I have place to build the bikes, but I spent a great deal of time back in October doing this with a semi renovation. I stripped everything out, painted the walls, laid carpet on the floor, constructed a tool board and have just finished it all off by making a new mezzanine floor for more storage of team materials, because I need the space at this time of year.

So the riders have just finished their first training camp in Majorca, but me, I'm here fixing what needs fixing in the truck, travelling to and from Ridley picking up materials, gluing tubulars and just generally getting prepared, if I don't, it takes me months to catch up. I ordered all our materials back in November and also scheduled availability dates, good planning makes an easier start to the first part of the season, but this is cycling, nothing ever goes to plan and everything is always last minute. With that said, while we have some slight delays on materials, it should all come together very soon and in two weeks I will be as busy as hell.

Thanks for reading and I will leave you with a few photos.



my new workbench all set up.



sorting out all the small parts.







preparing to put the ski boat in the water
and loading our gear onto the house boat in the background.



   Lindsay out on the wakeboard. On the last day she pulled out the plank, which is really just a plank of wood you ski on. 



                                          Main living area of the house boat, luxury.

                        The Malibu ski boat docked at the rear of the house boat ready for a ski.

 when your not skiing and you have a house boat, you jump off of course                                                                                    

My turn on the wakeboard.

The real Boxing Day test.

the remains of a Christmas dessert at lunch.

and now relaxing from that big lunch.







Packing the bike

There is a number of options in which to transport a bike and there are companies like Scicon that offer a great range of transport solutions. There are cheap ways, expensive ways, good ways and bad ways, but there is a bag or box that suits almost every type of bike these days. With Lindsay and I heading off on vacation with our bikes to homeland Australia, I thought I could post on my view of packing a bike, and I don't use a soft bag or hard case, it's all about taking your time to do the job correctly. With such a long trip the luggage is handled many times, so you want your bike well packed.

While there are some soft bags that differ from others in some ways, the advantage is they are reasonably light in weight and easy to transport, but some are better than others. On the team we use the Scicon type, similar to the Aero Comfort model.
http://sciconbags.com/en/item/19-bikebags/4-aerocomfort-tsa
This type of bag are made from strong nylon and have a frame inside in which to attach the bike and have a small amount of padding on the side walls. But even with the padding they can still come out broken. We had a bike break this season in one of these bags, although I did have limited packing materials. The reason is that the average airport baggage handler does not give a shit if there is a $100 bike or a $10,000 bike inside that bag, they will put it upside down or on its side and throw a 20kg suitcase on top of it, and if you haven't taken the time to pack it properly it will arrive to you broken. That said, these are a much better option than a soft bag without any padding at all. I was once at the airport with Alexander Kristoff, we were both on our way to Stavanger. He was travelling with his training bike (a pro normally would have 3 bikes) as the team had not yet built his other bikes, it was in a bag with no mounting frame or padding. He said the team mechanic packed the bike, but I was appalled by the lack of care in the way it was pack. In my opinion, just putting the bike in such a bag with no effort of any sort of packing preparation is just lazy and a recipe for disaster. The end result, the bike was broken and Alex had to be sent a new frame, no problem for the team but a hassle for Alex. The problem with the soft bag is that the walls have too much give in the bag, so when a suitcase is put on top of it the suitcase is actually sitting on your frame, there is no buffer zone so to speak.

The safer option and what offers almost full protection of your pride and joy is a hard case bike box. These are usually made from some form of hard thermo plastic and can easily handle the most careless of baggage handlers leaving your bike well protected. They take little preparation of the bike, just take out the wheels, place it in the box and secure in place with provided straps. There are these days a hard case to suit almost every size bike, but you should still consider the box carefully before purchase, that the box will suit a range of different bikes. After all, they can be expensive, but there are options out there to rent one for a one off trip. The biggest downside though is the weight of a hard case can be quite substantial and be almost your complete luggage allowance once the bike is inside. The box alone can be 10kg or 12kg. With this in mind you really need to do some research on baggage allowances with the different airlines.  If your really nervous about your bike arriving in one piece than this is the obvious option for you.             http://sciconbags.com/en/item/19-bikebags/1-aerotech-evolution-tsa 

The option I go for is a simple cardboard bike box that your bike is originally delivered in. This option is light weight, comes in a number of sizes and you can even custom make it to a size that suits you. Most boxes are tall enough to fit a frame with an integrated seat mast, but if not there is some modifications you can make to do so. So you may have to spend some time to cut and shape the box but after all, at most bikes shops the cardboard bike box is usually free to take. The box is normally thick enough to offer some decent protection of your bike and offers a bit more of a buffer zone than the soft bag, but read on as I explain how to protect it a little better. The downside is if the box is sitting out on the airports tarmac waiting to be loaded, and it is pouring rain, the box may go a little soggy., and this is not good. So far I have been lucky with this, touch wood, and besides, normally when its raining baggage handlers are supposed to cover the luggage carriages.

 So I picked up two boxes from my local shop, if your lucky it will come with some foam padding bags already inside. Now this box will be used for Lindsay's bike and although she is not taking wheels I cut the length of the box to make shorter, you want the box to be the length of the bike (with handlebars turned).  Most bikes are delivered to your bike shop with the rear wheel in, this makes for a very long box, one that can be difficult to navigate through an airport. I probably cut about 30cm off, but I cut one side not as much to use as a flap to fold in to make the new end piece. Once all the corners are taped securely using a good quality packing tape it holds quite well. Another thing to do is to tape around the holes in which you use to carry the box, these can sometimes tear, leaving a big hole and making it awkward to further carry the box.

The cardboard box option will also have your transport warning labels already on, like 'This Way Up' and 'Do Not Lay Flat', not that baggage handlers gives a stuff, but you never know it may help. The walls tend to be much more solid than a soft bag therefore leaving the bike much more protected. Being quite a sturdy box it weighs approximately 4kg, and with an 8kg bike in it leaves me about 18kg for luggage. Now that is flying with Emirates who have a 30kg limit, other airlines just have 20kg and charge a fortune for overweight, while others will have specials allowances for sporting equipment. Before you think about any form of bike transportation, check with the airlines on what will suit you to determine what box suits best. 

Now this is just what I do and is how you can  pack a bike for a cardboard box or a padded soft bag, with a hard case you probably don't need to go to this extreme. You will need some plastic zip ties and some foam insulation tubing, or you can use pieces of cardboard to wrap around the frames tubes.

First thing I do is shift the front mech to the outter ring and the rear mech to the smallest cog. Then I pull the levers in and zip tie them to the bars. It's an idea to mark the position of the bars somewhere beside the stem. You can use a piece of tape with a arrow drawn on it pointing at the join line between the stem and the face plate. This will exactly determine your bar angle when repositioning the bars. Then loosen the face plate and the stem at the fork steerer, turn the bars down and under the top tube paying particular attention to the cables, seeing that you do not damage them.

Next is to remove the rear derailleur. Be sure to do this with no tension on the chain as it can damage the thread on the hanger when being removed. You can remove the derailleur also by removing the hanger (also with no chain tension) but I like to leave the hanger on so a brace like the plastic one I'm using here can be installed. You can ask your local bike shop for some of these braces, the other option is to use some old hubs. For your wheels, most wheelsets are delivered with a plastic disc that sits in the hub axel to prevent the hub axel from going through the box, if your local shop doesn't have any there are some other options.

Wrap the derailleur in a cloth and secure in place. With the chain on the outter ring and the crank horizontal, zip tie the chain to the ring. This will prevent the teeth from getting damaged. For added protection of the chainring, I use a piece of pcv pipe with a channel cut out so it fits over the outter ring. This is then zip tied in place, giving the chainring a good solid surface to sit on.

Here I use some foam pipe insulation tubing purchased from the DIY store, it comes in different diameters and is thick enough to provide the paint work some protection. I place a piece on each chainstay, then I remove the pedals and re thread the pedals on from the inside of the crank, so the bike bike fits in the box easier and so there is less chance they will protrude outside the box. Then the left crank is secured to the chainstay so the crank stays at the horizontal position.

Now the box alone is reasonable protection and the chance of it getting damaged is slim, but I like to use the foam tubing just to be sure. So I use this to wrap the whole bike, the chainstays, fork and main tubes are all covered. It also protects the bike from other things you may have inside the box. Your goal is to protect the paintwork. The foam tubes are cheap and can be used over and over again. They come in a 1m length so you can cut them to the perfect length of the frame tube you wish to cover.

I cut out small sections of the tubing so they fit around the bottle cages nicely. Here I cut small strips off two tubes to make one big tube to cover the main down tube. Every foam tube is zip tied into place so it is secure throughout the journey. The seat post I remove and secure it to the frame. Then I tighten the stem and bars in place leaving the fork in its forward position, and then install a plastic brace into the dropouts. I then write an initial on each foam tube where it is placed so when it comes to repack the bike, I know exactly where every foam tube is to be placed. So when it looks like it does in the picture on the left, the bike is ready to place in the box. If using carbon bottle cages, it is an idea to put bottles in them to prevent from damage, especially if using a soft bag.    

So in this box there is a extra lining of cardboard. There was two plastic bags filled with foam when I collected the box, so I place one under the rear of the bike and the other at the front to protect the fork. Then I placed a piece of molded packaging foam (like what is supplied with electrical appliances) to make the bike sit tight in its place, you can add extra in as there is less chance a 20kg suitcase will be sitting on your frame. You also want the bike to move around as little as possible.

 

When packing in wheels you want to cover the hub axel and cassette to prevent them from rubbing on the frame during transportation, as well as from going through the box. Here I have used an old drain plunger pump (with handle cut off), it's a soft rubber so it's perfect for covering the cassette. On the otherside just a plastic end cap used for metal tubing does the job. For the front wheel I used some plumbing end caps to cover the cone nuts. Another thing be sure to do is deflate your tyres.

I also cut the length down on my box as the box was quite wide to easily fit the wheels in, and it was high enough for me to leave the seat on, after removing the spacers it just fit. I also used molded foam between the frame and wheels to keep the two from contact.

So that is how I pack a bike, it does take a little time but it will be worth it to have your bike arrive undamaged. I have travelled using a cardboard box a number of times and have had the bike arrive in perfect condition using this packing method. The only thing that I've had happen is some careless baggage handler, or something, tore a big hole in the side of the box. So some things I had loose in the box were falling out as I took it of the conveyor belt. This is where a soft bag would be better, and you could probably line the bag with cardboard to create that buffer zone I previously mentioned for extra protection. By using the cardboard box,  I can at least throw it away once I have finished using it.

Thanks for reading

The Cross Bike

As most in the cycling world would know, cyclocross is huge here in Europe and none more so than in Belgium. It has become quite popular in the UK and even more popular in the US, and now the cross fever has finally hit the shores of  the land Down Under. It took a while to catch on Down Under but there is at least now a racing season in place and from what I can see is growing more popular as the sport there develops.

I did plan to write a post on my cross bike not too long after purchasing it, I either didn't ride it enough to write about it or I rode it so much I didn't have the time to write about it, more likely the first reason. Then when the season starts... , well you know how frequent my posts are when the season is busy.

The bike I use is a Ridley X-Bow, and is Ridley's entry level frameset, and I use the words 'entry level' lightly. Ridley are what I believe the true leaders when it came to choosing a cross frame, many have now followed in their footprints. The X-Bow, is a 7005 aluminium frame that uses a 4ZA Zornyc fork that has carbon blades with an alloy crown and steerer. It's not exactly a lightweight throw it on your shoulder and run up a hill type of race bike, but it is for sure a good place to start out. Though this same frame did win two World Championships. The geometry on a cross bike differs slightly to a standard road frame, the most obvious is that the cross frame has more clearance in the wheel area to accommodate larger width tyres, has a higher bottom bracket and brake mounts for cantilever brakes. In other areas, some will vary how the cables are routed and how high the bottom bracket sits and so on. The choice on size can confuse some people and even had me thinking on it for some time. While some people can ride a cross bike the same size as their road frame, I had to go a size down on the Ridley. I normally ride a 54.5 top tube road bike but with the X-Bow I decided on a 52, based on the sizing chart by Ridley (no longer used) which measured the riders leg inseam. Plenty of people say, and I thought the same, you don't need to worry about stand over height, after all you don't ride your bike Fred Flinstone style. With that said, stand over height is still something to take into consideration when purchasing a cross bike as the whole bike does sit higher off the ground. I was hesitant about the 52 frame size as the top tube measures 53.5 compared to the 54 frame size that has a 54.5 top tube, which seemed the more logical choice. But as it turned out the 52 fits perfect. The 1cm shorter top tube is perfect when having to climb a hill, for the extra leverage, and the stand over was just clear of the family jewels. While this worked out well for me with the Ridley, other frame brands may be different. I'm just glad I did not go the 54 as that would of felt too big.

I purchased my X-Bow as a frameset and while there were some other brands to choose from, the Ridley favored my choice for a number of reasons, they were sponsor of the team but that had nothing to do with my choice. Free to choose whatever bike I wish, the Ridley stacked up the best for it was easily available as a frameset. Secondly the price of the X-Bow was in my planned budget, I didn't want to spend too much on my first cross bike given the amount of time it is ridden. Also was the fact that it had cables routed along the top tube and a traditional raked fork made the decision easier, just not a fan of straight forks. I was tempted to go the next model up in the X-Ride, a lighter frame but with straight forks and no way to mount a bidon cage, it was a true racers frame. Although my plan was to start racing, I wasn't exactly sure if that was going to happen (it's still a plan), so I opted to stay within budget and just go simple. The X-Bow can also make a great commuter or winter training bike as it does have bidon bosses and also the possibility to mount a pannier rack and mudguards.

As I purchased the frame in the Spring, my work load had me on the road quite often, so the frame stayed just a frame for a couple of months. Eventually I found the time to fit the Sram Rival groupset I had to use for the cross bike. Another few weeks went by and I managed to order the remaining parts I needed to complete the build. After a delivery of some cantilever brakes and some tyres, I was ready to roll. I immediately took it out for a spin in the local forest. The position didn't feel too much different than my road bike, I just had the bars and shifters sitting a touch higher on the cross bike, but it felt no where near like I was on a 52cm frame. It felt quite comfortable on the road, but when I hit the dirt, you really notice the difference compared to a mountian bike. For a entry level frame, the X-Bow performs exceptional on the trail, it moves on the single track with ease. The cross bike takes a little more control as it can easily throw you off your course compared to a mountain bike, something that takes a few rides to get used to, but it's so fun to ride, even a bike at this level. Ridley have the geometry of this frame just right to make a perfectly balanced bike to ride. 

Up front I use a 4ZA Cirrus 120 stem (which in no way should be flipped upwards like seen on some cross bikes) with Pro Vibe 42cm alloy bars. I was using the 4ZA Cirrus classic bar but I put those on my road bike now because on that I was using a test bar from 4ZA. I like the shape of the Pro bars, the Vibe on top is the same thickness from the stem which makes it good to grip for larger hands. The reach is short but they have a long sweep so you don't hit your arms when in the drops sprinting. The drop is a nice open curve, the way classic bars should be. Then the long flat section when you want to sit in the drops and roll along. I actually got these bars from the Rabobank team. They remind me of the old Cinelli Criterium bars I once rode with.

My Sram kit is a tad old now but it still works really well, although not a huge fan of Sram. On this old version I don't find the shifters too comfortable for cross riding, I may change out the groupset one day but for now its ok.

The crankset is a compact, I did away with the standard 34-50 combo and purchased 38-46 Zephry rings from TA Specialties. The normal cross combo when you purchase a crankset or a bike is more like 36-46. I did think about the 36 but where I live it is quite flat so I find the 38 ok. Pro's like World Champion Niels Albert also use a 38-46 combo, where as Sven Nys uses 39-46 and on a spare bike even has 39-48 for a sprint finish. For the women, US racer Katie Crompton uses a 34-44 combo, which I think is about normal for the women.

 Crank length can also be an issue, do you go shorter to spin and corner better or do you go longer for more leverage. For me, I just stuck with the crank I had planned to use which happens to be the same as my road bike, 172.5. Going shorter for more clearance I don't really believe because the ground clearance can vary with the terrain, it's not like your on a track or in a criterium where the surface is the same. But going longer I can understand for the extra leverage when climbing or for just putting down the power. I have 175 on my mountain bike which is the norm, even Lindsay has 175 on her small bike. Crank length, in a road bike situation, should really go on body height or foot length. At a height of 177cm and shoe size of 43, a crank length of 172.5 for me is ideal. Even Nys at around 182cm uses 172.5, whereas Crompton at 169cm uses 175.  So looking at it that way it seems a little backwards, just use what your comfortable with but I really think your height and more so your shoe size play a big part in the correct crank length for an efficient pedalling technique.

The pedals I use are Shimano's PD M540, the Shimano pedals prove to be bomb proof even for this level of pedal.

  

While the chainrings are a little smaller compared to a road bike, on the rear the drivetrain is fairly much the same. Here I have the standard short cage Rival rear derailleur with a Shimano 5600 12-25 cassette and a 5701 chain. You will notice I have something wrapped around the chainstay. I use an old tube as a protector so all the whiplash from the chain doesn't chip the frame or make a noise when it does hit. I split the tube down the middle and then by starting at the bottom bracket wrap it around the chainstay keeping a firm tension, similar to wrapping bar tape. Then just finish it with a zip tie to keep it in place.

The brakes I decided to go for are Tektro's CR520, a rather cheap simple canti brake, but by gee they work well. really easy to set up and work very well with the STI road shifters. The CR520 comes with a basic pad which don't feel that great under load and wear quite quickly, but for the price their not bad. As you might see in the photo I have changed out the pads for a cartridge type pad which feel much better, So in the end the Tektro CR720 model brake might be a better purchase. I could have gone something ridiculous like TRP's EuroX carbons, but on this bike what would be the point. You probably noticed in the first photo I did have carbon bottle cages fitted which might seem as a bit over the top, but I have a reason. Normally in cross racing bottles are not used but at this moment I use mine sometimes more than the hour that a cross race would go for. It is not unusual that I sometimes go out for 50 or 60km on the cross bike, so it's nice to have a bottle with you. Also, the cages are some that I had being testing for 4ZA, which will now be a new cage in their line up for 2013.

The tyres, so many choices, well sometimes. I will start with the wheels. I had an extra set of wheels laying around so I thought they would be perfect for the cross bike. Some wheels by Real Design, which were old stock from my first team when we rode with Litespeed. The Real Design wheels were supplied by Litepseed and back then the riders seemed to break a few, but these ones seem to be holding up well and have done so for a few years now. Normally a cross bike would use a rim that is slightly wider, but I find these 19mm road rims to be working just fine with the 32mm tyre. I would prefer a slightly wider rim, which I might change to if or when I change out the groupset. Now while all the top riders use tubulars, there is still a good choice in clincher tyres. Tyre's from Continental, Challange or Michelin make a few varieties, but I opted to go the Schwalbe Smart Sam's, which I find to be a good all rounder. The benefit with tubulars is you can run much lower pressures without pinch flatting, and I mean low as in 2bar (30psi). A clincher you can not quite run that low, the Schwalbe tyres I use have a minimum pressure of 3.5bar (50psi) to a max of 6bar (85psi). I run them at around 4-4.5bar (60-65psi). If your doing alot of racing then yeah, tubulars are the go. But for someone just recreational or starting out, a clincher set up will be fine if you run the right pressure, which will depend on tyre choice. Too little and you risk pinch flatting, too much and you won't have any traction cornering. There is also a great deal of work in gluing a tubular for cross, as much as 6 or 7 coats of glue plus tubular tape such as Jantex is sometimes also used. Because of the lower pressures your tyre will easily roll off if not glued correctly. I actually have two pair of tubular wheelsets with Mavic Mach2 36h rims hanging in my workshop, but I think I would prefer a wider rim if using tubulars. I'm considering relacing one set of these wheels to some Mavic A319 rims for a stronger wheelset. The other set I already plan to relace to some Mavic Open Pro rims for my road bike.

The cross bike is so versatile to ride I even got Lindsay one. Her bike is a Vipera and is the house brand at Racing Depot in Norway. Again just an alloy frame with carbon fork, but Lindsay's has the cables routed along the down tube as in a standard road bike. The frame measurement is a 50, and while maybe just a fraction on the big side, a 49 would have been ideal but was not an option. I think the next size down was a 48 with a sloping top tube, it would have been way too small and just didn't look like a cross bike. I basically went off the top tube measurement, which is 52 and is 1.5cm shorter than her road bike. The bike was a quick purchase as it was also a surprise for Lindsay. The guys at Racing sourced me a 50 from a store, initially the frame did look big and again I had to consider the stand over height, as for girls that seems an important issue. All aside, I put it in the truck and took it home, knowing I was taking a chance. Luckily the frame fits her ok and she is really happy with it.

There wasn't much on the bike to change. It came with Tektro safety stop brake levers which I initially removed because they didn't work so well with the Mini V-brakes the bike came with. In the end the Mini V-brakes didn't work that well at all. Repositioning the bars and shifters was the only other adjustments to make. The bike has Tiagra shifters with a Tiagra front derailleur and a 105 rear derailleur. The crank is a FSA Omega 172.5 that originally had a 50-34, but I've since replaced the 50 with a more suitable 44. On the rear a 12-25 does the job.

The Mini V-brakes were not doing the job, so they were next to go. I replaced these with a Shimano BRR550 canti brake set up. The set up of these were not as straight forward as my CR520's but I managed to get the right tension in them to work efficiently. To run the BRR550's I also had to change out the seat clamp for a version that had a integrated cable stop. This also was the case for the front brake cable. To run a system like I have on my Ridley would not work because of the lack of clearance under Lindsay's stem. So I purchased a Tektro fork mount cable stop from the US that works perfect. With the better brakes on I refitted the safety stop levers so Lindsay could try them, but she thinks she doesn't need them, not on the trail anyway.

So that is the cross bike. We find where we live they are a great bike to have. In an area surrounded by small forests and gravel paths there is a great amount of riding that suits the cross bike, as well as being quite a reasonable ride on the road. Lindsay will sometimes ride hers to work, and if she wants to take a scenic way home she can easily take a number of forest paths to get home. There is a great amount of fixed forest routes within a 30km radius of where we live, and we have many organised mountain bike tours in these forest that we do on the cross bike. We now leave the mountain bikes for extreme muddy conditions or very hilly terrain. We can easily take the cross bike out starting on the road and then decide to go off road, switching from the two in as little as a 30km ride. It's something that I think is rare in many other places, to have such a unique variety.

Thanks for reading.

Ridley X-Bow numbers,                         

seat tube c-c; 520                                   bar height; 570 (axle center to top of bar)

seat tube c-t; 560                                    reach; 560 (tip of saddle to center of bar)

top tube c-c; 535                                    saddle height; 750 (bb center to top of saddle)

head tube; 127                                        saddle set back; 80

seat angle 73.5                                        groupset; Sram Rival 2007

head angle; 72                                         saddle- Selle Italia Flite Genuine Gel

bottom bracket drop; 59                          bike weight as is; 9.3kg

wheel base; 1007