Inspired, I got out on the two-wheeler Sunday morning to find and ride what pavé (French for cobblestone) still exists in the 502, for what could be termed a pathetic but pleasant meh-pic homage.

There are relatively few of these area left in town that I know of. I haven’t given a whole lot of time to finding them, but given my life spent in this town coupled with the wisdom that only Google Maps Street View can provide, I found these handful of sections. They fall into one or two categories: ridiculously steep or quaintly maintained as a curio. I prefer the former.

As do many cycling trips in town, I started from Cherokee Park, riding a lap of the Scenic Loop, before getting to the proper steep stuff. You can find my entire route, “Crescent Hill Cobbles” on bikely.com

* legendary in cycling circles, anyway

Coming up after the jump, a pictorial of the journey and details.

Appetizer: Maple Road, Cherokee Park

Length: 2100 feet.
Altitude gain: 101 feet.
Gradient: 5% average, 11% max.

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Sector #1: Peterson Avenue @ Grinstead Drive

Length: 529 feet
Altitude gain: 65 feet.
Grade: 8.8%

Old, weathered, at times unruly.

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Sector #2: Bickel Alley between Payne Street and Bickel Road

Length: 700~ feet
Altitude gain: 50 feet
Grade: 6.5%

While not cobbled, it is a nasty stretch of uneven asphalt, concrete and gravel. Interesting collection of houses on the way up, as well.

[iframe: width="425" height="350" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=embed&hl=en&geocode=&q=peterson+ave&sll=38.213545,-85.636762&sspn=0.012223,0.020685&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=S+Peterson+Ave,+Louisville,+Jefferson,+Kentucky+40206&ll=38.260761,-85.693359&spn=0.003071,0.005171&t=h&z=14&layer=c&cbll=38.249968,-85.702028&panoid=55q6ykbm7IEk2kT2wjqRvw&cbp=12,341.9,,0,5&output=svembed"]

You might also be interested in slogging up the nearby Saunders Avenue, just east of there. Not cobbled, but concrete slabs on a straight silly incline.

Sector #3 – Sycamore Avenue between Keats Avenue and Jane Street

Length: 420 feet
Altitude change/gradient: Eh.

Here lies an interesting curio. One block, untouched by the hot wrath of the asphalt-layer. Mostly flat with tidy paving bricks that deal a 10% quaintness bonus to all houses nearby.

[iframe: width="425" height="350" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=embed&hl=en&geocode=&q=peterson+ave&sll=38.213545,-85.636762&sspn=0.012223,0.020685&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=S+Peterson+Ave,+Louisville,+Jefferson,+Kentucky+40206&ll=38.260761,-85.693359&spn=0.003071,0.005171&t=h&z=14&layer=c&cbll=38.255187,-85.701945&panoid=vAO9ebjkip6jrkCwf0C9Pg&cbp=12,270.39,,0,5&output=svembed"]

Sector #4 – Haldeman Avenue at Brownsboro Road (US 42)

Length: 449 feet.
Altitude gain: 49 feet.
Grade: 11.1%

What makes it worse is that many of the paving stones on Haldeman are actually laid into the street in a stair-step manner, I assume to keep cars from hurtling down it in damp or icy conditions. Imagine attempting to bike up your stairs, if they were 1/8 scale, and jagged.

PS – Apparently so fearsome that the Google Maps Street View car wouldn’t dare it!

[iframe: width="425" height="350" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=embed&hl=en&geocode=&q=peterson+ave&sll=38.213545,-85.636762&sspn=0.012223,0.020685&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=S+Peterson+Ave,+Louisville,+Jefferson,+Kentucky+40206&ll=38.260761,-85.693359&spn=0.006141,0.010343&t=h&z=14&layer=c&cbll=38.259508,-85.710462&panoid=Hjb7YgKRFK262ow8Y8EIAg&cbp=12,191.07,,0,5&output=svembed"]

Sector #5 – State Street between Frankfort Avenue and North Charlton Street

Length: 968 feet
Altitude Gain: 34 feet
Grade: 3.5%

At the bottom, a tidy selection of stones as seen in the photo above, but at the top there is a wonderful patchwork of new and old stones, as seen below in the Google Street View.

[iframe: width="425" height="350" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=3107+Hikes+Ln,+Louisville,+Jefferson,+Kentucky+40220&ll=38.255259,-85.716099&spn=0,0.005171&t=h&z=18&layer=c&cbll=38.255334,-85.716061&panoid=zsYy5R7pDlrSLvNTqeWvkw&cbp=12,190.62,,0,30.07&source=embed&output=svembed"]

After-dinner Coffee - Stevenson Avenue @ Mellwood Avenue

Length: 100 feet?
Altitude Gain: 23 feet
Grade: 23%

So this one isn’t cobbled, nor is it much longer than a baby’s arm, but it’s plenty steep.

[iframe: width="425" height="350" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=embed&hl=en&geocode=&q=peterson+ave&sll=38.213545,-85.636762&sspn=0.012223,0.020685&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=S+Peterson+Ave,+Louisville,+Jefferson,+Kentucky+40206&ll=38.260761,-85.693359&spn=0.006142,0.010343&t=h&z=14&layer=c&cbll=38.256903,-85.719907&panoid=OPJ4IE_cnjMFjDPF43toIg&cbp=12,143.49,,0,5&output=svembed"]

Dessert – Mellwood Avenue to River Road and Mockingbird Valley

No need to blather on about this stretch. It’s not cobbled, it’s mostly flat and it’s beautiful. Mellwood Avenue is a tree-lined avenue with low traffic that runs from Old Louisville through to the affluent Mockingbird Valley. Mockingbird Valley is a rolling, tree-shrouded tour that intersects with Brownsboro Road. Say hello to the Dancing Bears, if you can find them.

[iframe: width="425" height="350" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=embed&hl=en&geocode=&q=peterson+ave&sll=38.213545,-85.636762&sspn=0.012223,0.020685&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=S+Peterson+Ave,+Louisville,+Jefferson,+Kentucky+40206&ll=38.260761,-85.693359&spn=0.04912,0.082741&t=h&z=14&layer=c&cbll=38.275697,-85.692152&panoid=668j1vwfLEvkpMxu4aZOFw&cbp=12,108.35,,0,5&output=svembed"]

And while 45 minutes isn’t my ideal – far too short! That’s what I’ve got and I have come to realize that it’s the small steps, consistently done do the trick just fine. So I build and build – keep building is what a good friend told me years ago.

But then it comes times to put what I’ve built – my fitness – to the test. The running season started in earnest last weekend – and I smashed my 5K personal record (PR) by almost a full minute. Something must be going right.

But maybe only with my fitness.  My biggest problem is fear. Lots of nerves usually. Like the kind of nerves and fear that make my heart race and the adrenaline going until it sours in my legs. And the funny thing is – it doesn’t happen to me for running races – only for cycling. It’s a little like young love – and I’ve definitely sold my competitive soul to cycling. I eat it, I sleep it.

A couple of weeks ago I rode up to Salem, IN (~60 miles) and felt real good. Good – at least I’ve got a little fitness. Last weekend I did a ride with my TwinSpires.com team guys and felt fantastic, whereas this time last year I was hanging on for dear life. I was flying up some seriously steep grades and feeling great, and my teammates were right there with me. Finally – I’m near their level! And today, today was the first road race of the new year here in the Ohio Valley – the Long Run Park Circuit race.

Last year (see reports here and here) I got my ass handed to me in almost all of the Category 4/5 mixed races I entered (I’m a lesser Cat-5). I had the FEAR and I had it bad. Nerves would knock me out of most races. I was determined to not be that guy again… and I wasn’t. Whereas early in the week I was having my typically-vivid-daymares about the race, this morning I got up at my 6AM. I am calm. I am eating my oatmeal. I am tending to the baby. I drink my coffee and get to the race, an hour early. I get warm and keep warm. I lined up and the whistle blows. The clicking of pedals to shoes and we take a left to the downhill. I fight for position and in one move I am near the front. I move to the front of the pack of 50. On the short climb I am still there. On the way down, I stay on the wheel of the 4 or 5 guys at the very head of the race.

This is it. I have done it. I am capable of this.

I stick on the wheels of a couple of guys at the front of the race for a lap and a half. I am overjoyed. But I am also running at my redline. I can’t contain this pace and I am doing too much work.  I blow up. I hit my threshold. I dial it back at just the wrong time and I get “shelled” out of the lead group of 15-20. But y’know, my goal has been reached. I have proved that my hard work is work-ing. I have shed that fear.

I group up with a handful of guys and we finish the race together. It was a good race, and I am proud of what I’ve done.

I was confident the whole day, and best of all – without fear. It was a good day.

Update: I placed 19th out of 44! Ecstatic!! I know I can do better – I blew up because I was trying hard to chase a lead group.  Shoulda just looked in my rearview and hung with the peloton… anyway, as Bobke says – “That’s bike racin’ for ya”

or maybe this:

haha. This you???? http://foo.ws/KD7P

Whatever you do, DON’T CLICK ON THE LINK IN THE MESSAGES. These are examples of a rapidly-spreading Twitter hijacking “worm”.  I haven’t seen a good explanation of the how or why this is so prevalent, but when I see some even my most web-saavy friends (you know who you are), and even the Internet legend Cory Doctorow being duped, I figure it’s high time to make a post.

WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT

While I don’t have any hard-and-fast info on how or why this is spreading, there are two easy things you can do:

1. Typical phishing-prevention steps: review all links before you click on them.  Does the URL say TWITTER.COM or does it say TWITTAR.BIZ? Yeah. I realize this might not be possible on a mobile device, so exercise caution.

2. Update your password to something complex. A little uppercase, a little lowercase, a number. e.g. FooB4r! (and no, that isn’t my password)

3. Check your “Connections” on Twitter. Review them all and remove any that look suspicious.

When this exploit gets loaded and sees GoogleBot, it spits out its content – which is normally a big wad of pharmaceutical SPAM, like Cialis, Viagra, etc. Google picks it up in it’s search results and the content the SPAM links to gets a bump in Google’s search ranking.

For example, when I view CXMagazine.com normally I see this:

But when the search engine crawler views it (or when you view the page using Firebug+FirePHP):

And eventually the search engine entry for that site looks like this:

Oops!

PS you can use the Google Mobile Viewer to view a site as Google might…

Some searching in the WordPress Support Forum led me to this post: Site Hacked – 301 Redirects, with some suggestions on fixes. None of my sites have been exploited, so I’m not sure what it will take to fix, but I would assume that as long as your database hasn’t been affected simply updating to the newest version should be sufficient.

I don’t know if this is a recent “development”, but this exploit is likely the result of folks not updating their WordPress installations after the major security update WordPress released back in the Fall of 2009. If you aren’t running the most recent version (2.9.1 as of this writing), you need to be. Check this: Old WordPress Versions Under Attack.

Kelly, Amelia and Ben Wilson

…and…

Amelia as Giraffe on Halloween

that

Amelia eats peas!

was

Amelia lookin' FIERCE

that!

Amelia's First New Years

I can’t remember a year when I’ve had more fun…and more challenges.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Cobbled together from sketchy footage and so-so photos from both days at the 2009 USGP here in Louisville. Enjoy.

Featured are a number of Rogues, some of which who Love the Pain, IronMan Michael, ‘Zanne, her crippled hubby, Molnar (whos baby girl gave me a dollar), those awesome little scamps from Red Zone cycling, and of course Jimmy the self-proclaimed “one-eyed drunken cyclops” from F*ckgas.org. Where’s all the TwinSpires.com guys?  Well… my one and only teammate DNF’d in the mudpit at the end of the video on the first lap. Chapeau!

The kids in the yellow t-shirts are from Lionhearts Junior Racing – which I can’t find a website for, but I am totally a fan of them now. Root beer hand-ups for all!

Music:
Old Crow Medicine Show – Trouble that I’m In
Blizten Trapper – Gold for Bread
Old Crow Medicine Show – Tear it Down

Why is this man so happy?

The USGP is a well-organized, well-sponsored event. The USGP is a circus, and when the circus lands in your back yard, you show up and you have fun. Beer is a common currency, costumes are encouraged, muddy, pain-wracked smiles are the norm. This isn’t road racing, for sure.

I raced in the Category 4 (the lowest level) race at 8:30 AM on Saturday and spectated on Sunday. I shot a lot of photos (and some video) of the non-PRO races, and I’ve been attempting to find the one photo that tells the story, like this one:

But I think the story is best told in a string of photos. I took a bunch (Day One, Day Two), and after the jump you can enjoy a little tale…

The USGP of Cyclocross Comes to Town

by Ben Wilson

Kids

Ladies

and full-growed men…

…paid good, hard-earned money to ride their bikes…

…out in the cold on a wet, muddy, ex-golf-course…

(replete with sand traps)

Not only that, but somebody put hurdles in the middle of the course…

and there was this big “Green Monster” thing someone thought was a good idea…

…it had stairs on one side, mocking you with beer ads…

…and a big BMX-style slide on the other…

They all suffered…

…even the children.

And yet some still smiled…

…some danced like no-one was looking (note the tongue)…

…and some even dressed up like they enjoyed it!

Because at the end of the day, it’s all about the glory of suffering…

…and, of course, the beer:

~ fin! ~

A huge thanks to all the people in town who made this thing possible. All the organizers, volunteers, racers and fans who came out. It’s great that my hometown can put great events like this. It was a riot!

PS – Much love to all the fine Rogue Racing Project folks. That’s a good group of people, and I support good groups of people. (Especially those with a keg of BBC Belgian-style steps from the course)

More photos here:

USGP of Cyclocross Louisville Derby City Cup, Day One

USGP of Cyclocross Louisville Derby City Cup, Day Two

All photos copyleft by me, except for the first photo of me shot by Marcia Seiler.

Amelia sternly criticizes my performance at the 2009 Tour de Louisville cyclocross race. One of my favorite photos of her.

Some blogs do everything “right”, meaning they’ve optimized their site and content for a wide range of viewers – friends or strangers, people new to the site, old hands, people new to the subject they are writing on and people well-acquainted, and people reading it via their primary domain or via the rising trend of RSS readers.

But MOST blogs could use some sort of tweaking to keep their readership, whomever they are, engaged and growing. And that’s where I’ll come in, with this very article you are reading.

After the jump:

• Say Hello and Show Your Face
• Don’t Assume I Know What You Are Talking About
• Google Reader, RSS and publishing your FULL entries
• Don’t Get Crazy with your Blog Template

Say Hello and Show Your Face

If you are running a blog that is super-secret and filled with scandalous juicy tidbits, or divulging intimately personal information on the Internet (don’t do that), then DON’T take the following advice: Put a photo of yourself or your co-bloggers and brief capsule of who you are and why you are writing this blog on your blog.  Secondly, use your real name – even if it’s just your first name. You don’t have to give away the store, just give some details that will connect your readers to YOU, which is why they are reading your stupid blog in the first place.

These things are especially crucial if you are writing a locally-focused blog and chances are you will run into one of your devoted readers on the street, in the park or at the grocery. Otherwise, you’ll be ships passing in the night. Ships that are constantly scanning the crowd wondering Is that the girl that writes that blog I love? Man, I’m just not sure. Oh well, I guess I’ll go home and play Bejeweled. While the Internet is a lovely place to be alone, the world itself is not.

Don’t Assume I Know What You Are Talking About

New visitors to your site don’t know a hoot about you, and they don’t know about your past, in-jokes, lingo, friends or possibly even the subject matter of which you speak. This, however, isn’t a problem thanks to the much ballyhooed “hyperlink“. The hyperlink states “there is more information about the word or words I contain, if you just click on me”. This provides a couple of advantages:

• You don’t have to explain the topic right there in the article, leading to brevity and focus
• You can educate your reader (if they want)
• If the user is interested, they don’t have to Google whatever the heck you are talking about.

For example: “Man, I totally had a bitchin’ time flying handlaunched gliders with my friend Chris Lee that time I went to the 2008 MVSA Gateway Open”

You might not know what a handlaunched glider is, who Chris Lee is or what the MVSA Gateway Open was, but you could know just by clicking. It’s a good idea any time you mention an event, organization, person or possibly-confusing topic to link to it. You only have to do it once, whenever it’s mentioned the first time, just like footnoting. I am also a big fan of linking people deeper into the archives of your own blog – another great way to introduce yourself, and it helps with the ol’ search engine rankings somewhat.

PRO tip: “You can find out more information at so-and-so’s website.” Do you see what’s wrong there? It’s not the sentence, it’s the fact that “so-and-so’s website” isn’t linked. If you mention a website, by god link to the damned thing.

Google Reader, RSS feeds and publishing your FULL entries.

RSS means “Real Simple Syndication”. It’s a one of those “standard” things on the Internet, and every single blog application (WordPress, Blogspot, TypePad, etc) has it built-in and turned on by default nowadays. It allows your users to pop your blog URL into a newsfeed reader (like Google Reader) and be updated when you update your blog. Except, of course, that they don’t have to actually visit your blog.

“Buh! b-b-b-but I want people to visit my blog, right?”  Well, sure, but that goal actually becomes secondary the moment they hit your blog for the first time. Then, after that, you want them to read your blog and then you want them to keep reading your blog. Forcing someone to A) remember to check and B) type in “thebestestfoodblogthereeverwas.blogsploot.com” every time they want to read your blog is “sub-optimal” as my ex-colleague Andrew might say.

Google Reader is the gold standard of web-based news readers. I use it daily and it has revolutionized the way I get my news on the Internet. Subscribing to a news feed is wicked simple, as is organizing my subscriptions, navigating and reading new stories that automatically appear. No more remembering to check someone’s blog or remembering pesky URLs. It’s all right there, everything I want to know about cooking, fantasy baseball, cyclocross, model airplanes, astronomy, whatever. Also, it’s available on your mobile device: m.google.com/reader. You can also do some real handy things, like “starring” favorite articles, or sharing articles with your Google buddies.

PRO tip: you can search past stories you’ve read. If I want to know what Beyond the Box Score said about Angels pitcher Scott Kazmir back in June, I can do it by typing “Kazmir” into the search engine. BAM.

Publish the whole story to your news feed, please. One of my biggest pet-peeves are sites that don’t publish the whole story in their news feed. Most of these are commercial sites, and working in advertising, I get it – they want me to drive traffic to their site to view their pretty, shiny ads. However, that rarely works: if I’m on my mobile device, I will rarely if ever suffer through their terrible, non-mobile version of their site to view the full article. If I’m using Google Reader on the web, I will sometimes open the full article if the (usually poor) lead-in catches my eye. It’s just like reading a real newspaper. People skim articles until something catches their eye, and then they read the whole thing.

PRO tip #1: In WordPress, you can adjust this setting under Settings > Reading > For each article in a feed, show Full Article.

PRO tip: You can publish ads at the bottom of your articles in your newsfeed, or better yet, just make contextual links in your article to other links on your website. The hook is set because I’m reading your article, all you need to do is reel me in.

Don’t Get Crazy With Your Blog Template

I know it’s fun to add all sorts of jangly shit, widgets or giant image banners to your site, but keep in mind that’s not why people visit your blog. (Unless it’s the jangly shit blog or a MySpace page.) Here’s a couple of web-design standards we try and follow in “the industry”:

1. Design to assume most people are viewing your site on a 1024×768 monitor (I have numbers to back this up)
2. Keeping in mind #1, try and keep your header (where am i?), your personal info (who is this?) and at least the headline of the content “above the fold” (the bottom of the browser window). People don’t mind scrolling down, but don’t enjoy it, and they certainly don’t like scrolling left-to-right just to read your run-on sentence.
3. Font size at 12px or above, and no red-on-black or blue-on-black. High contrast=easy reading.
4. Your content is king, so don’t pack a bunch of other shit around it. Space is good.
5. Sidebar content is great, but keep it to a minimum and organize it accordingly.

Ben Wilson doesn’t classify himself  as an expert in too many things, but having been working in the industry for a decade, and blogging for just as long, he’s going to go out on a limb and consider himself an “expert” on building stuff on the Internet and reading blogs. But as with all Internet “experts”, he’s probably got another thing coming.

Look upon my works, ye mighty, and chuckle heartily.

What you see before you is my spring/summer waiting-on-the-baby project, a cyclocross bike. It’s a jumble of parts acquired from my basement, local sources, Craiglist and eBay. It is also my first from-the-group-up bike build. Finished in August, I spun it out the River Road Country Club cyclocross (CX for short) course to make sure it wouldn’t fall apart, and then… I raced it at the Tour de Louisville cyclocross race October 4th. The race and the bike were awesome. I even got a little bloody…

I’ll be racing this Saturday AM at 8:30AM in the Category 4 Open Men’s race. It’s gonna be NUTS.

More details on the bike after the jump…

Anyone who has experienced my own odd sense of fascination understands that I understand you need to get your hands dirty to truly know a thing. When confronted with the choice of purchasing or building, most people would probably side with the former. Let’s face it, it’s easier – whether it’s a computer, a model plane or even a loaf of bread. However, I am not that person. I am that person that bike shop owners and mechanics yearning to serve, wish would just give up and leave it to the pros.

So it was when I decided I wanted to try cyclocross. I read everything I could get my hands on and cashed in some relationship capital with Kelly to let me start sourcing parts over the summer so I could build it for the fall ‘cross season.

While I know the value of “doing something right the first time” I am also of the school of well-earned knocks. I could spend a ton of money and build myself an expensive, poorly built bike. It would be an expensive lesson – especially considering how really fair-to-middling I am as a rider. Instead, I relished the thought of finding that intersection of cost, reliability and performance and dove into researching. My Google-fu is strong and anyone who tells you otherwise is a fool! All told, I spent less than what I would have paid for the bike new and also gained a ton of knowledge in the process. (See the parts list at the bottom of this entry) But onto the gory details…

The Frame

I found a Scattante XRL Cross frame on Craigslist for $175 (a steal!) and worked up from there. For the money it’s a nice, lightweight frame with good welds and a nice integrated headset. Some folks complain about the ovalized tubing on the top tube where your shoulder would go when you carry it in cyclocross, but to be honest my shoulder is the least of my worries when I’m suffering like I suffer during a bike race. I also kinda like the color… or at least it’s unique.

The Wheels & Tires

Uh, well… it’s a pair of Ritchey clincher road wheels I had in the basement from a previous singlespeed project. I gather most dudes run lighter, tubular tires with more spokes, but again, my game ain’t at the level where that’s going to make a difference. I have found these wheels to remain true over my training and racing on them, but I’d really like to build some wheels this winter, so until then…

The tires are Kenda Kommando clincher tires I bought from Aaron at The Mountain Bike Depot. When I went in there and asked his opinion, he laid it out straight – “for you, I’d suggest these. Later, you can move up to these Grifo $80 tires”. He didn’t try to oversell me. He knew what kind of rider I was based on my insistent if underwhelming racing at their Shorttrack Mountain Bike Series. Much respect. I love those guys and their wonderful support of cycling in our town.

Drive Train

I did a one-by-nine setup (1 chainring in the front, a 9-speed cassette in the rear). Part of this is a practical solution – you don’t need the gearing you do on a road bike in CX, it’s lighter and there is less to be clogged with mud. But, in reality – the shifter bits (brake/shifter combo levers) are dang expensive! I figured I could get by with just one for now. I wanted to get a Shimano setup but found that 9-speed Shimano shifters of decent quality are expensive, even used… but Campagnolo ones aren’t. Odd! But you can’t run a Campagnolo shifter with a Shimano rear derailleur, right? Wrong! Enter the world of the Campy/Shimano… Shimergo setup!

Specifically, I found a Shimano Deore XT derailleur and a Campagnolo 10 speed Centaur brifter. Following the handy charts on the link above, I found that you can mate a Shimano rear derailleur with a Campagnolo 10 shifter with the “Hubbub” modification, which is simply a re-routed shifter cable.

Since this isn’t an EXACT match, getting it dialed it took a little longer that normal, but not too long. The XT derailleur also doesn’t come with a cable barrel adjuster (WTF?) so I had to use a Jagwire “Mickey” adjuster mounted on the seatstay cable boss. Just a little twist here and there keeps everything in line. I’ve practiced on this setup and I’ve raced on this setup, and I’ve had zero issues. CX racing is a little more rambunctious than road riding, so every once in a while I get a unintended gear change, but it’s rare.

The cranks are some older Shimano Ultegras with a 42 tooth chainring and a Spot brand bashguard. I picked em’ up on eBay for cheap.

The Other Stuff

I just recently put on the Crank Brother Candy SL pedals – and I am loving them! I previously had a set of the Crank Brother’s “eggbeater” pedals without the platform, and they were good, but in ‘cross you need to be able to “find” the pedal easily – and the platform surrounding the “eggbeater” pedal is great for doing so. They also feel a little tighter than the “eggbeater”, but are just as easy to get out of when you dismount the bike.

Noodle Bars! I love these Nitto “Noodle” handlebars. They’ve got just a little bend in the top (I find myself riding with my hands on the top of the bars) and just a slight flair on the drops. And they look classy, all nice and round.

On the top of the Nitto Bars are my Cane Creek in-line brake levers – and I’m loving those for their extra stopping power, especially on courses like the Fisherman’s Park course with crazy, steep, off-camber nonsense.

In the end…

I definitely spent less on the bike than I would have had I plucked something similar off the shelf… and I know this bike, and I am responsible for it working. It feels all the better when I cross that finish line, totally blown.

Parts Listing

Scattante XRL Cross Frame and Fork
FSA Integrated Headset
Nitto Noodle Bars
Shimano 600 Crankset
Shimano Bottom Bracket
Crank Brother Candy SL pedals
Salsa 40 tooth chainring
Spot Bashguard
Shimano Deore XT rear derailleur
Campy Centaur 10 Speed Shifter
Cane Creek Brake lever
Jagwire Basics cables and such
Dimension Seatpost
Bontrager Seat
Ritchey Wheelset
Kenda Kommando Tires

That’s 14 different manufacturers. It’s a beast for sure.