My Single Speed Cyclocross Bicycle

After having this thing for more than a month I am finally getting around to talking about it and posting a picture.

Single Speed Cyclocross Bianchi San Jose

There it is, in all of it's 49 cm glory. At first glance this looks like a road bike, but it has tires that are a wide 30-32 mm. That might sound small but I am used to the 20 mm tires on my road bike. It even has a skid plate around the chainring so that I can ride over rocks and stuff.

What makes a cyclocross bike different than a road bike is that the fork and rear supports are wider. That way mud can get caked on the tires and they will still spin. The brakes are also cantilever brakes which means they are attached to the both sides of the fork and rear supports instead of attached at one point above the tire. The brakes are also about twice as long as my road bike brakes so they have a lot of stopping power. The frame is aluminum and it is so light without all of the normal bicycling components that it accelerates well.

Well, that's about it. I bought it used on eBay for $500 including shipping, which I think is a fair price. I use it mostly around town because it is durable enough to handle going over curbs and other city obstacles like the occasional gravel alley. I even took it out to JFK park south of Dubuque and went "mountain" biking with a coworker. It handled it quite well, except with a single speed I could not bike up the steep hills. Aside from the single gear, this bike is capable enough to handle most mountain biking terrain that I would ever go on. Serious mountain biking is scary to me. It happens so fast that I prefer the single or double track trails without and big jumps.