crossmyheart
Hearts and flowers for all your cyclocross needs.
Built with the cyclocross junky in mind, you all know who you are. Light, strong, and hella cool...the Clark Custom Cycles Cyclocross Frame.
cross my what?
The initial round of the Clark Custom Cycles cyclocross bikes are being built for two good friends who happened to get engaged. So yeah, the luggs on these bad boys are being carved with all sorts of hearts to make sure that they stay lovely for many a good hard cyclocross season.
Shhh...this is actually a myronicus frame, ahhh the joy of the versatility of the 29er frame. It is however Damien Clark on a cyclocross course.
What is Cyclocross anyway?
For those uniniated into the grand world of cyclocross it is sort of a wacky hybrid between road racing, mountain biking, and a running steeplechase. As our good friend James Johnson once said (and another influence on the bike's name), "Cyclocross is 45 minutes of cross my heart and hope to die that my heart doesn't explode."
Here's how it breaks down. Hop on the bike, ride around a course that frequently includes all sorts of mud, water, dirt, grass, you name it. Then fly off the bike and run (bike in hands) across some nutsy bridge or whatever. Then do a flying leap back onto the bike. Rinse and repeat till the race is over, maybe no rinse though...it is more fun to stay muddy.
We've got two favorite types of cyclocross frames, the singlespeed and the 1x9. The singlespeed's great for it's simplicity as always...no shifting, no worries (and problems when the conditions get really freakin' nasty and everyone else can't shift because everything is coated in frozen mud.) The 1x9 is great when the weather is nice...gives you a few options for gearing without being overly complex or heavy. But then again, when it gets muddy and frozen...you can get a bit screwed.
A historical note...
Cyclocross was started in Belgium, by people who know what beer is, as a way for road cyclists to train in the winter. Traditionally it went thorough a beer garden.