The last two seasons I was on Treks: two years ago on Trek's carbon Cronus and last year on a pair of aluminum Crocketts. Three years ago I had two Cannondale SuperXs, however, so this is not my first time racing Cannondale cross bikes.
The first thing I felt when I got back on a Cannondale SuperX was "wow, this is a race bike." The Cannondales handle much quicker compared to the Treks, which seemed to lag during hard accelerations. This could be due to the top of the line carbon composition of the Cannondales, whereas Crocketts are made of much heavier aluminum. The Treks' front steering geometry also felt a bit off to me, which is interesting because the differences between the Crockett and SuperX are slight: .5cm shorter chain stays; slightly higher bottom bracket; and slightly steeper head tube angle on the Cannondales. But those differences add up to much quicker handling, which suited my needs perfectly.
Depending on what you are doing with your cross bike the quicker handling of the Cannondales isn't necessarily a good thing. Treks are ultra predictable. The stable feel of them makes bombing high speed road descents and rough technical sections easy, making them a more versatile bike overall.
The other major difference on my bikes this year is disc brakes. Anyone who says discs aren't needed in cross hasn't ridden them. My SRAM brakes added a whole new level of confidence, particularly in faster dry races when I needed to get on the brakes hard before corners. I could brake later coming into corners, which was a big advantage over other riders on rim brakes. And being able to stop in all conditions was pretty nice too. Finally, the pads on this years' brakes sat significantly further away from the rotor than previous generations, eliminating any issues with pad rub, and I swapped wheels a lot!
So what didn't I love about my bikes this year? Well I wish I would have had more than two pairs of good wheels. I had two pairs of awesome Zipp 303 carbon tubulars, one glued with Clement PDXs and one with Clement MXPs. Then I built a third pair of tubulars with Velocity Major Tom rims and DT hubs. Having raced a lot of aluminum wheels, I stand by my statement that any tubular wheelset is better than a clincher for cross. The Major Tom wheels were strong and stable, but the Zipps were noticeably faster in all conditions. They also accelerated better and turned easier thanks to their stiffness and light weight. No comparison.
The MXP tires were disappointing. I know a lot of people like them, but I didn't find a condition in which they outperformed the PDXs. The Clements were good in general, and stood out for their durability. I'm still searching for a tire, however, that is as versatile as the PDX but with slightly more supple casing.
Anyway, enough words, here are a few shots of my bikes as they sat in mid October.
Lucky to have two awesome bikes!
Fizik Aliante is a personals favorite. I'm interested to try the newest version that just came out. Fizik claims that it is the same shape, just a longer tail and tip, which should be better for mountain biking.
SRAM's new Centerline rotors are much better then their old design. They were quieter and had a smoother feel. I rode with 140mm rotors front and rear this year, which gave me all the breaking power I needed.
120mm Zipp stems. Very nicely finished stems the hold the bars well. Not sure how I feel about the T25 torx bolts.
Wolf Tooth Components helped us out with their Drop Stop chainrings. Never dropped a chain, even in the muddiest races.
CX1 with a Quarq.
Zipp 303's rode very well. Stiff, light and strong.
As always, feel free to ask any questions!
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