Tag Archives: cyclo-cross

We were introduced to H Plus Son rims at Bespoked handmade show at Bristol and came away with a sample of their new rim the Archetype. A new brand to us they have been around in the fixie crowd for a while with some more deep section rims and have aimed their rims at a more discerning rider looking for a better standard of finish.

We were immediately impressed with the almost matt finish and virtually invisible weld joint, we're keen to try these rims out and will update when we've built up and ridden these rims. ...[ continue reading >> ]

Tubeless technology works especially well for cyclocross, but all the parts you need are scattered across our website so we thought we should bring them all together in one place.
Rims

Most people use traditional lightweight aluminium rims for cyclocross rather than fancy carbon which will get scuffed up and damaged in the mud. Carbon wheels are best kept for important races. Popular CX rims are available from Stan's NoTubes, Ambrosio Excellight and Velocity A23. The Stan's Alpha 340 are the lightest at 350g each, and make tubeless easy using conventional tyres. They are also surprisingly strong. The Ambrosio and Velocity are a little heavier but come in a bit cheaper and are also good and strong. A wide rim will support the tyre better than a narrow one, especially at the fairly low pressures you should be running on a cross bike.
Hubs
Pretty much any hub used for road or MTB can also be used for 'cross bikes. The main consideration is the dropout width; many cyclocross bikes have 130mm rear dropouts, while mountain bikes use 135mm. Some hubs are convertible, others will only do one or the other. If you're using disks on a 130mm dropout bike, you will need to...[ continue reading >> ]

Maxxis Raze kevlar
I don't know much about cyclocross tyres, but I do know what I like. Well, what I don't like anyway, which is tyres that are puncture-prone, draggy and have no grip. That describes pretty well the tyres that came on my Kona Jake the Snake, some hefty Kendas which rode like greased-up tractor tyres.
Happily these Maxxis Raze are just about the opposite. I've been riding them to work and back several times a week since June, on and off-road, and they haven't punctured or thrown me off once in all that time. They roll fast enough to lose any opportunist roadies that want a race on the way home, and there's a surprising amount of tread left after so much road use - check out the photos. They grip very well on loose surfaces, though I haven't tried them in much mud yet. Looking out the window at the rain, I should get a chance to test them in some gloop pretty soon.
No doubt some of this miraculous performance is down to the tubelessness. Despite not having any claims to being "Tubeless Ready", like most Maxxis they inflate really easily on my NoTubes rims (Alpha 340 road) and...[ continue reading >> ]