First Cross Bike Setup

[mdeeds71]

I have just ordered a Kelly Bedford Tig Cross rig. This will be my first foray into cross.
I am looking at using a 4-5 year old Chorus group I have that has less than 500 miles on it. Of course then it was a 10 speed system but thinking I have 3 cogs sets I can choose from plus...no money out of pocket on it.
Plan is to use the shifters, front/rear derailleurs.

Looking at brakes as in EuroX or the 959SL...any insights great on this are welcome

Crank is up in the air...anyone tried the campy Cross cranks? What else is out there?

Gearing for my first season: I plan on doing a few races in the NJ/NY/PA and NE area thus have no clue on what to use for cross.

Wheels will be a alloy tubular...still looking but Cole and Revolution are on the list...maybe something better the following season.

Ideas for a first time cross bike would be great.

[old_fat_and_slow]

.

[mtb_frk]

I run a compact crank 36-46 and spend most of my time in the 36.

I made the switch to mini-v brakes this year and I won't be going back to cantis anytime soon.

[Hank Scorpio]

You have to be careful with the crank choice due to the wide chain stays. On the Vanilla I had to go back to a square taper with a 108 spindle to get the clearance for the rings. The chain line was still pretty good and the shifting worked fine. I am primarily using this as a winter training bike and a back up road bike so you might not need to run a 53/39 combo up front.

[rounder]

I am going with a Kelly cross rig also. I have no idea what racers are planning to do. Their gearing is probably based on the courses. I plan to go with 50x34 and 12x25 and just ride around with 32 tires. Never had a bike like that before and am looking forward to it.

[djg]

Originally Posted by mdeeds71

I have just ordered a Kelly Bedford Tig Cross rig. This will be my first foray into cross.
I am looking at using a 4-5 year old Chorus group I have that has less than 500 miles on it. Of course then it was a 10 speed system but thinking I have 3 cogs sets I can choose from plus...no money out of pocket on it.
Plan is to use the shifters, front/rear derailleurs.

Looking at brakes as in EuroX or the 959SL...any insights great on this are welcome

Crank is up in the air...anyone tried the campy Cross cranks? What else is out there?

Gearing for my first season: I plan on doing a few races in the NJ/NY/PA and NE area thus have no clue on what to use for cross.

Wheels will be a alloy tubular...still looking but Cole and Revolution are on the list...maybe something better the following season.

Ideas for a first time cross bike would be great.

Bought a set of the campy cross cranks -- still yet to build. OTOH, I have used campy compact cranks with a little chainring swapping.

No experience with those wheels but folks seem happy with Cole, Williams, and others. Without knowing what team/shop discounts you might have access to: A good builder could probably put together a nice set of hoops for you for a reasonable sum -- the wider rims (HED, etc.) might be good, but there's nothing wrong with reflex. For pre-fabs I love the Eurus tubulars and have a set of Easton back-ups that I picked up cheap and seem fine. Also, I noticed that CC has some substantial discounts.

For brakes you might want to check out the TRP mini-vs -- built up a bike for my daughter with these and rode it a few times or so and they can absolutely stop the darn bike when the rims are wet. Other than that I had decent luck with Spooky carbons and some older shimano cantis -- but I'm keen on these new mini-vs.