What do I know about how a cross bike should feel? Absolutely nothing. What I do know is that I hate riding my mountain bike on the road and my road bikes are not designed to be taken off asphalt. This is where a cyclocross bike comes in. This is my latest toy from Blue. A CX6.5.

I found that the bike felt very smooth on road sections and with a change out of tires I could easily use it for some long training rides. The full carbon fork, including the steer tube, really sucks up vibration on the rougher trails. I had mine built up with Shimano 105 running a 50-34 front and a 12-27 rear. This combo pretty much will get me up anything. My ride on it Saturday I swapped out wheels and used my Xero lite. I'm running Maxxis Locust tires which I found had awesome grip in the trails. Mix that in with Areus bars, stem and seatpost and the bike tops the scale at 18.5 pounds.

This is the bike I will be spending alot of time on over the next few months. Will a cross race be in my focus. Not for this year but next fall for sure. It will be tested at the Icebreaker and Paris-Ancaster next spring.

As for racing for next year. The schedule is starting to come together. For now its time for some dinner.

pictures later

The weekend is just not long enough sometimes. I'm starting back into some training finally. Ok not really training but back to riding at a little higher intensity. With that said I played on my new toy. Meet my winter beater!!!

Sweet isn't it. Saturday was my first play time on it. It was a mix of bike path, snowmobile trails, smooth fast singletrack and a short section of construction developments which meant some hike a bike. I'll get a full review of parts layout etc up tomorrow. Lets just say it was alot of fun. I've always hated riding my mountain bikes on the road and since I will not destroy my road bikes by blasting through rough snowmobile trails this things is just a great toy to have. So when I said I was riding with a higher intensity this was not an understatement. Not thinking about much but having fun my heartrate sat at an average of 160 and spiked to 193 a couple times. Yep defiantly fun. Do I like my cross bike. YEP!!!!

Speaking of cyclocross. Went to the Barrie Cycling Club's cyclocross. Cool event. I'm now kicking myself for not racing. Huge turnout. I watched the first race and now have this craving to do one. The course was pretty awesome with some mean off camber switchbacks. A few crashes in this section.




The afternoon was play time. 3 hours of trail riding in Tom's forest. It was an awesome fall day. My legs felt great. Spent more time playing on the hardtail. I'm liking this bike more and more. Quick, smooth and very comfortable. I want mine!!!! The loaner will be gone this week but my first frame will be here this week and will be ready for the Mansfield race in 2 weeks.

Review of the toy tomorrow!! Oh and congratulations to all my friends for finishing Ironman Florida. Great job. Almost makes me want to do one. Almost.

Its November. It gets dark early and the temperature drops almost as fast as the sun. Why do I bring this up. Because I'm already thinking about the day that we get the most amount of daylight. Summer Solstice. Besides the daylight it also means one of the longest days of racing. Just finished registering for the 24 Hours of Summer Solstice held by Chico Racing. This is now the biggest 24 hour race in North America. 2200 plus racers. It also brings some big names to this event. Last year brought Mark Hendershot and Dannielle Musto, both winning their solo categories. Something tells me this will bring even more big names this year. There link is over to the left.

With November I've also said that its time to start training again. The rib is healed and most of the tendons and muscles in my back are close to 100 percent. Now my flexibility is slowly coming back. This month will be alot of yoga, stretching and core work. Its also time to start strengthen both knees. I have a tracking issue in both knees which developed after that dam adventure race. HMMMM, maybe I should just buy some new body parts and become the bionic man.

Good luck to all my friends from the Midland Tri Club who are racing at Ironman Florida tomorrow. Gord I hope your ankle survives. Those dam roots and rocks!!! Tim, hopefully you can beat your time from worlds. Doug and Irene, the husband and wife racers. Have a great race. Brandon, Pace yourself !!!! You still have to run!!! Peter, ride smooth relax and stay in your bars!!! Peter will be the youngest ever Ironman finisher when he crosses the line. I wish I was there to cheer all of you on but unfortunately I had to stay in the grown up world and work.

For those interested in watching the live feeds from the event along with the finish the link is below. Stay tuned over the weekend. My cross bike is here and ready to roll. Full write up sometime over the weekend. For now FOOD!!!!

http://www.ironmanlive.com/

It must be our Indian summer. The last couple days have been amazing. I was able to get out and play for an hour yesterday in the trails. With all the leaves down now a night ride is a little bit to sketchy so I'm limited on how late I can go. All in all it was great just riding. I picked up the pace and did a bit more climbing on the hardtail. I really do like the way the bike feels. It climbs amazing and its very quick handling in the tight switchbacks.

Someone left a comment saying Carbon Sucks and don't fall. You know what. I used to say the same thing. You know what, I've changed my mind. Look at how many carbon mountain bikes are out there now. No I'm not going to take this bike free riding on crazy stuff. That's not what its designed for. But for a 24 hour or 8 hour race course or most Ocup races for that matter this bike is more than capable. Yes there is always that fear that everyone brings up that carbon snaps. Ya well for one I'm not 220 pounds and 2nd that's what warranty is for. I was basically told that if I break this frame they will give me another with no problem.

Now if you go launching off a 5 foot drop off with this bike sure its probably going to break. It all comes down to riding the bike in its designed category. Would you take a standard road bike to a cyclocross race? It might get through the event but it would defiantly not be a great thing for the bike. So has my attitude on carbon changed. Most defiantly. I would have gotten a carbon hardtail for next year no matter what company I was riding for. As for the falling on big rocks. UMMM best answer. DON"T FALL!!!!!!

Alright, enough venting. Tonight was an hour of Rodney Yee's Yoga for Athletes. For those that have not tried yoga yet. What are you waiting for. The list of benefits is so long that I could only start it. More flexibility, better balance, better focus, better breathing. This is the video I use. For cyclist this is great because its alot of lower body poses which we need.

Or for those local people you could check out Dharma Yoga Wellness Centre.
http://www.dharmayogawellnesscentre.blogspot.com

I have a 2007 XC Carbon to use for the next week to get used to the bike and figure out bike lay out. First thing about this bike. It looks hot. I'll get to how it rides shortly but the finish is awesome. Blue has a mix of subtle graphics and sections of visible carbon fibre. The bike looks fast sitting still.

This bike came setup with Shimano xt components and a RockShox Sid. Areus carbon bar and Easton stem and bar. For this week I've put on my Mavic CrossMax XL's. I love these wheels. With this setup the bike is just over 20 lbs.





The frame build is clean with carbon tubes and aluminum lugs. The bottom bracket is over sized to eliminate any flex. So how does it ride? The first thing I noticed was its acceleration. Every ounce of power I put down to the pedals went to the wheels. I haven't ridden single track since the crash last month so my trail feel was a bit off and with the rain and snow the leaves and trail were slick. The bike felt very smooth. I've been on a full suspension for a couple years and was concerned that the hardtail would be a bit squirrly and the back end would be kicked all over the place. Not the case. I felt very comfortable on this bike.

The carbon frame sucked up the small vibrations and made for a smooth ride. Climbing was amazing. It cut up single track with easy and went down the steeps with no fear at all. The only thing that I will need to adjust to will be over large bumps or things I hop over. There is no longer that little cushion of a rear suspension. Over all opinion of the bike. Its amazing. I can't wait to get both of mine. There will be a few changes from this bike to mine. Mine will be Sram components. I also did miss my bar setup with the bar tape wrapped grips and bar ends. My hands got a little sore but that was because the bar height was a little low and the stem had been cut to low for me to adjust it. Easy fix.

As for the numbers. The BLUE XC CARBON frame weights in at 1330 grams and costs $1000. Now to compare this Giant's Carbon hardtail costs $1500 and weights 1290 grams. For those racing at the W.O.W. race at Mansfield I should have atleast one of these bikes there for anyone wanting to take a close up look at it.

Will I be able to do a 24 hour race on this bike. I think that the carbon takes out just enough vibration to easy the back and the benefits in climbing will help the legs. Awww and a light bike will make those times I may have to get off and walk alot easier. Its going to be a fun season next year.