I Hate My Cyclocross Pit 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. continued here

Joe Bellante writes the Joe Biker Blog on AOL and races for BioWheels Cincinnati.