Originally Posted by
burnthesheep
I like having a little competition once in a while, but still can't find peace with myself between my local offerings and my family schedule.
I keep having people I ride with tell me to do CX. I have a Crockett. I ride probably a 3 hour gravel ride with some technical aspects to it every other week. I'm just really afraid of endo'ing in practice or a race, as I'm pretty sure the fitness is far beyond the handling skills.
Like, when gravel riding I still almost poop myself if the rear end starts coming around on a corner and the inside foot has to unclip. I'd assume you're doing that the whole time in a cross race.
The whole mount and dismount thing doesn't bother me. I'd just need shoes as my "spd" shoes are hacked up roadie shoes with zero sole/tread to them.
Maybe I should get a pair of used shoes and at least go do some practice riding.
It really would lend itself well to my "time crunched" schedule and local racing needs.
Someone convince me I should do it. It's not too late to grab some shoes and start doing laps.
How are the mixed spd pedals versus just using MTB pedals? I find the MTB ones a bit difficult to get into/out of in a hurry.
I started racing CX last year because my 13 yr old son really likes it and I had a great time. It lacks the tactical fun of road/crit racing, but the scene at the race is more fun and it is a good for fitness and bike skills. Don't worry about endoing in a CX race. Really fast corners similar to a downhill on a gravel road are rare (at least in Oregon CX). Much more common are a bunch of tight corners in a row that take some skill, but you aren't going so fast that you are likely to get hurt if you go down. You'll want a pair of mountain bike pedals and shoes.