Posts tagged Cyclocross

Historically cyclocross bikes have had higher bottom brackets than road bikes. But do you know why?

Clipless pedals have been the norm for a long time now–longer than cyclocross has been popular in the United States. So most people don’t know that the high bottom bracket was a result of not wanting toe clips to drag in the mud. I’d heard this anecdotally from some old timers, but never saw it verified anywhere until I posted our cyclocross bike video on Twitter and tagged Keith Bontrager.

Keith commented:

The high BB was necessary. They rode with clips and straps. They needed the extra height to avoid contact between the clip and the ground on the first crank revolution after a remount. Their foot wasn't in the clip yet and it was facing down, towards the ground. If the clip dug into the ground and spun the pedal it messed things up badly. Getting back into the pedal was critical, and really hard to do with cross shoes of that era in the mud.

Keith posted three examples of old cross shoes to illustrate. I love these old Duegi cross shoes:



Watch our video: What Is a Cyclocross Bike?

See our current cyclocross and gravel bike listings!

BikeList was an official sponsor of the final race of the MFG Cyclocross Series in Seattle. We went, we saw, we had a blast and we will be back to race next year!

See our current cyclocross and gravel bike listings!

And yes the title is longer than this blog. Here's a pic I snapped at this race back in 2016. Dan and I will be there this Sunday November 20, handing out stickers, shooting video and soaking up that awesome PNW cross vibe. See you there!

More details at mfgcyclocross.com