Test ride - Continental Cross Country 1.5

Today, I've decided to have a test ride training, to try a different setup to my bike and to test some new tires (at least for me).

As it was raining yesterday and today the snow was falling from the sky (but remember that Friday was a shinny day with 12C) I thought that it's a great idea. Until the first race I have time to test all the models that I have so I can decide correctly what tire is the best in all the conditions.

So after I got the tires off the box, first thing was to put them on the scale.

They have a reasonable weight, and I must admit that I thought that are a bit heavier because the side wall is thick and the knobs a pretty big.




It was pretty hard to mount them because I have some standard tubes 1.8-2.3, so I'd say that is better to use some 1.1-1.5 tubes.

So I've finally mount them. The bike look like a cyclocross bike with 26' wheels, suspension and disc brakes.

The pressure on the tires was 37psi for the front wheel and 40psi for the rear wheel.

The best place that I had in mind for this, let's say, test, was the 2008 Cluj Winter Race course, because is 5 minutes away from my home and there are 2 ore 3 types of soil, so obvious in these conditions 3 types of mud.

Voicu came with me, so I was not alone. He also helped me with the photos on the course.

I started pretty easy, not pushing the bike to the limit, but I was more confident after a few minutes because the tires offered me a strange sensation for these conditions of riding: I though that I was glued to the mud, so on the first downhill I saw how good the tires are and the the thread did not hold up the mud. So the tire stayed clear and was passing all the obstacles.

Even on the uphills I had the same sensation. On some parts of the course where the trail was pretty abused, if I was getting up the saddle the rear tire want it to drift away, but I guess that it was due to the lack of weight on the rear wheel. Otherwise the control was pretty amazing and I was stunned by their performances.

I can say that these tires deserve a 10 of 10 and for muddy races there are the best tires I ever tried.

If you would like to know more about them, I'd be happy to reply your comments and emails.

I would like to wish you happy trails and I hope that the spring to get here faster.

Regards,
Vlad

Sram X.0 Special Edition tested on Cannondale

Sram presents a Special Edition of the still current top group X.0 this spring. The components are available in five special colors:


Cash (green), pinkslip (Pink), redwin (red) and tango (orange) and nugget (gold). The parts will be available in around 8 weeks.

Marco Aurelio Fontana is one of the new Cannondale Team Members. He with Roel Paulissen already tested some of the new products, but also the new Cannondale Scalpel.

Below are some photos (thanks to Eliflap)