So last year I went to watch my first cross race. I had a lot of fun and really wanted to try actually racing this year. I have a ton of photos and words about that race, check em out here: https://www.dirtbag-cycles.com/features/2021/9/22/coal-cross.
The thing is, I’m pretty broke. I don’t have the money to actually get another bike for racing. While I could have just thrown down on one of my 26” bikes, I did want to do a bit of tinkering. I also wanted to make it as cheap as possible, and to show you how to do the same. So this is what I did. I’ve included a price break down so far.
I started with some new tires. I had a gift card to a local bike shop, so I went and bought myself some cross tires. They’re Specialized Terra Pro tires, and while I bought them new at $75 each, you can definitely find some used tires pretty cheap online. A quick Pinkbike check just showed me a few pairs for $100. I just happened to have a gift card and nothing else that I really wanted to get. So there ya go.
Next thing I did was get some used Crankbrothers Eggbeater pedals, and some used Shimano gravel shoes. I think I spent a total of $25 for all of them, because used is great :) I wanted Crankbrothers pedals because I’ve had some experience with Shimano SPDs and didn’t like how they clicked in. I dunno why, they just felt weird. So I wanted to try something else. These seem ok!
Next thing: I put on a one-by chainring and cranks that I salvaged from a weird soft tail bike someone was throwing out. It was a basically-untouched Raceface chainring, which I knew cost $80 new, but I nabbed it for free, so I was still sitting at $175. But if you bought all this used, it’d be about $160 or so at this point (also you totally don’t need to do this, running a double is perfectly fine. Price without changing the chainring would be $125).
But that’s it for things I bought for the bike. The rest I took off the bike, and provided you don’t need any new parts for yours, the rest of this should be pretty cheap.
I took off the front derailleur, took off the shifter and the cable. I also took off the bottle cage, to keep things light and because I’ll not be riding with a water bottle.
So basically: take an old touring bike frame, throw some cross tires on it and then enjoy. If you want to make it a bit racier, then for pretty cheap you can have yourself a pretty sick race bike.
The thing is, now I have to race it this weekend. So we’ll see how that goes.