Cross!

Kyle Legate said:

I'm 12'7" and just ignore the barriers.

They've got some good HGH in Germany.

Mark Fennell said:

Donald Munro said:

There must be a future for cyclocross as a contact sport.

Sadly yes...

Wow, the way it was written up you'd have thought that the guy was
really wild instead of just losing his balance at a critical point.

Quoted message said:

They've got some good HGH in Germany.

They sure do : http://www.markus-ruehl.de/

"Bret" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

A cross dismount isn't difficult to master, in fact it's very
elementary compared to the things that trials riders (google Hans Rey)
or acrobatic cyclists can do.

Bret - we ain't acrobatic cyclists or trials riders. What's more, the reason
that there are so few of those is because most people can't bring themselves
to threaten their own health and welfare that easily.

While I agree that a cross dismount isn't all that hard, we're also looking
at it from the other side of having done it. I remember the trepidation the
first time I dropped down a vertical face on an MTB and how a couple of
years later I realized that I was riding sideways across a 70 degree face
that went for 300 yards, at 20 mph, without a second thought.

Tom Kunich' cyclintom@yahoo. com said:

years later I realized that I was riding sideways across a 70 degree face
that went for 300 yards, at 20 mph,

....those 100mm cranks are good for something.

In article
<[email hidden]>,

Quoted post said:

Ryan Cousineau said:

For me, this was very easy with SPD pedals, but has been very hard to
do now that I use Crank Brothers pedals. It may just be a mental
thing, but I feel like the Egg Beaters don't like to unclip as cleanly
(or perhaps they just don't positively eject my foot in the same way
as the SPDs), and thus I haven't gotten the knack of it. Nonetheless,
I use Egg Beaters because SPDs are terrible at dealing with mud and
sand in the cleat interface.

i switched to the eggbeaters for 'cross and found them easier to clip
in and out of than the spds. i liked them enough that i cut the
quattros on my road bike, achieving full pedal unification.

Quoted message said:

Andrew Penner demonstrates the through-leg
technique:http://www.sfu.ca/~rcousine/dismounts.mov

Pinfold ?

Pinfold, of Symmetrics. Dumbass=me.

--
Ryan Cousineau [email hidden] http://www.wiredcola.com/
"My scenarios may give the impression I could be an excellent crook.
Not true - I am a talented lawyer." - Sandy in rec.bicycles.racing

On Dec 20, 6:49 pm, "[email hidden]" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Ryan Cousineau said:

For me, this was very easy with SPD pedals, but has been very hard to
do now that I use Crank Brothers pedals. It may just be a mental
thing, but I feel like the Egg Beaters don't like to unclip as cleanly
(or perhaps they just don't positively eject my foot in the same way
as the SPDs), and thus I haven't gotten the knack of it. Nonetheless,
I use Egg Beaters because SPDs are terrible at dealing with mud and
sand in the cleat interface.

i switched to the eggbeaters for 'cross and found them easier to clip
in and out of than the spds. i liked them enough that i cut the
quattros on my road bike, achieving full pedal unification.

Quoted message said:

Andrew Penner demonstrates the through-leg technique:http://www.sfu.ca/~rcousine/dismounts.mov

Pinfold ?

It's hard to learn by reading about it or even watching a video, but
if someone can show you it's easy, plus they can spot what you're
doing wrong.

at a cross clinic most people will do a decent dismount within an
hour.

there's two key points :

-clip out and swing you right leg between your bike and left leg and
coast towards the barrier balancing on your left leg only. start out
just doing that.

-the dismount has three stages:
i. plant the inside (right) foot
ii. clip out and plant the left foot
iii. step over the barrier with your right foot

knowing where to plant that first foot is crucial, pinfold does it
perfectly but some of the others take a lot more steps, which gives
you more room for error.

I went out for a ride today and I actually managed the dismount rather
well. It's nowhere near smooth and all but the basics are there. I
don't have any difficulties getting my right leg between my bike and
my left leg. I think after some more practice this shouldn't pose a
problem.

Now the remount, that's a whole other story. I get the idea of
touching the saddle side with my right thigh and the sliding into
position and hitting the right pedal. This isn't so difficult if I can
swing my leg up there but doing this while running along side my bike
and jumping my leg up there? Tricky busyness.

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Tom Kunich' cyclintom@yahoo. com said:

years later I realized that I was riding sideways across a 70 degree face
that went for 300 yards, at 20 mph,

...those 100mm cranks are good for something.

Believe it or not the bike was vertical to the face of the hillside. And I
didn't have the slightest problem with slipping or anything. When I thought
of it afterwards I couldn't believe it. But I was one of a half dozen of us
all in a line doing exactly the same thing with exactly the same success.

"webhead" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I went out for a ride today and I actually managed the dismount rather
well. It's nowhere near smooth and all but the basics are there. I
don't have any difficulties getting my right leg between my bike and
my left leg. I think after some more practice this shouldn't pose a
problem.

The trick is to pick the bike up high enough so that the crank/pedal doesn't
catch the back of your shoe as you take the first right leg step.

Quoted message said:

Now the remount, that's a whole other story. I get the idea of
touching the saddle side with my right thigh and the sliding into
position and hitting the right pedal. This isn't so difficult if I can
swing my leg up there but doing this while running along side my bike
and jumping my leg up there? Tricky busyness.

There is absolutely no good way of remounting rapidly and you simply get
used to leaping over the saddle and landing on one thigh so that your
privates are clear problem is that I've never been able to do this so that
it doesn't hurt anyway. But you only do it in a race so you're only
practicing it until your first race and then that's your practice from then
on.

Bret said:

A cross dismount isn't difficult to master, in fact it's very
elementary compared to the things that trials riders (google Hans Rey)
or acrobatic cyclists can do. It's natural enough that I use it to
dismount into a walk in ordinary circumstances. The problems I see
people have when first learning it are that they are simply unwilling
to commit to doing it. Exaggerating the danger doesn't help that.
Eggbeaters do always release for me, but I think that they require a
little more range of motion than SPDs do, so I have seen people (my
wife) have trouble making the change. Make sure you have the cleats
installed for early release:

For a 15 degree release angle (earlier release) on both feet, place
the cleat with the two dots on the right shoe. For a 20 degree release
angle (later release) on both feet, place the cleat with the two
circles on the left shoe.

I think dismounting is rather like riding no-hands -
you just have to get over being scared of it and
commit. IOW, I agree with you. This is one reason
I recommended flat pedals as a dismount learning tool.
You gain confidence and don't really learn significant
bad habits.

I have Time pedals, which are somewhat similar to
Eggbeaters' retention mechanism, and I filed down
one side of the brass cleat to make it even easier
to click out. I got away with this because I have
relatively little heel rotation during pedaling,
so I don't have problems with accidental release;
but by the same token, the heel rotation to clip
out was a little more awkward.

I still stutter-step on the remount, which is a
sure mark of the novice or Fattie who doesn't practice
enough, but a hard habit to get rid of.

Ben