A little Cross Tech

After Saturday's race Fitzy and Bergy were heckling me about the weight of my Salsa La Cruz steel cross bike. I originally built this bike to be a crappy weather training bike that I could ride on and off of the pavement and it is perfect for that. But at 22.5 lbs, it is a bit of a tank to hoist over the barriers and carry up the run-ups.

Bergy offered me a test-ride on his new Salsa scandium Chili Con Cross and since we are close to the same size I took him up on it. But before I rode it I took some measurements and had to weigh it. I really shouldn't have done that. 17.94 lbs... Doh!

Bergy's new hotness

In cross, low PSI is your friend so Stans rims + sealant make perfect sense if you don't want to mess with tubulars. The wider profile of the Stans 355 rim compared to your average road rim spreads the tire out and decreases your chancs of rolling it off of the rim at lower pressure. Plus, chaning tires is easy. I am a bike geek but the thought of spending multiple days to glue up a set of tubulars does not appeal to me.

Craftsman 19.2 Volt Cordless Inflator

This bad boy is on sale for $36.99 at Sears.com right now. I cut the stock pump head off and clamped a new Silca presta pump head on. The coolest thing about this tool is that you can set the max PSI and the inflator shuts off when it reaches that PSI.