..... and my bike choice is

Drum roll please

It's the................. Whyte 2012 Saxon Cross


A no brainer in the end

Kinesis frameset plus BB7 brakes plus wheels, etc would have cost quite a bit more than a complete bike with the end of 2012 discounts. I also get a 3pks backup bike for myself.

Three peaks and the winter 'cross season will seem very different this year :-) and hopefully the times will reflect the effort and investment.

Those clever Alexander's at Whyte

Those kind folk (Ian & Pat) at Whyte loaned me the 2012 saxon prototype.

I'm sure this breaks one of my previous posting rules about not using a Haygrath hand-me-down! Here it is with Mr Haygarth using this frameset in last year's 3 pks.

Test ride 1) - Lecky escarpment circuits (ingleborough training) proved the shouldered bike to be 1kg lighter (scales did that really) and great at holding a line down the goat track - already confident on the bike negotiating the rocky, rooty, twisty descent on this bike.

Test ride 2) - the Big One: The Gulley with Jeff and John - a 3:30hr technical ride on one of the club MTB routes. Later in the ride I mentioned we were about to tackle the gulley at which Jeff commented that he'd never done it properly on an MTB. In the end we did the gulley, a tight, rocky, stream bed ascent fairly comfortable showing once again that cross bikes can match MTBs cross country.

Initial conclusion on the whyte proto cross bike:

• Discs are such a dream - effortless and more power. Why wait for heavy, costly hydrolic brakes when the power from cable brakes is easily enough. I also want tektro cable 'cross levers.
• longer wheelbase resulted in greater confidence on technical 3pks like descents compared to my old Milnes bike where I was constantly battling the physics of tipping over the bars. In cross racing the lack of a foot & wheel overlap (1 inch on the milnes bike) means I can put 175 cranks on and negotiate the tight racing turns.
• Comfort - the carbon forks (my first on a 'cross bike) and the rear triangle absorbed huge amount of rocky descent. Pen-y-Ghent will feel so different :-)

LIKING THIS BIKE - I want one.

Training has started

..... well sort off. This damn fine British summer is not doing much for my motivation.

Back on the Lecky escarpment to do a few laps of Ingleborough training. The electric cow fencing has now gone
My manhood is now protected from the risk of being zapped (a painful experience from last year - serves me right for laughing when my Beagle got zapped peeing against the same wire).

Need to plan some 3hr rides - just need to get a demo bike to motivate me

Why I need a new bike

My current Paul Milnes bike was a rush purchase in 2001 just before the 3 pks when Dave Haygarth's hand-me-down broke whilst training with the club MTB guys.

Lesson there:

• Haygarth hand-me-downs are well used, tested to the limit and probably EOL ;-) &
• make sure you don't give the MTB'ers a reason to be smug and say "told you so"

And I want discs! - I'm fed up of being in tears of pain descending Pen-y-ghent trying to brake through poor rim brakes.

And I want a frameset where my feet don't overlap with the front wheel which caused me no end of grief in the winter CX races.

And yes, it's been 11 years on the same CX bike - time for a change - it's been brilliant and looks as good as new which is saying something since I'm getting/got a reputation for falling off!

So now to the fun bit of which bike to test.

Bike choices:

• Kinesis Evo 6 frameset
• Whyte Saxon Cross