Bruce Dalton - My CXRACE - CYCLIST mag interview below.
CYCLIST interview.
‘Basically, we’ve removed everything that won’t help you race faster or win,’ says Bruce Dalton of Kinesis UK. ‘I rode cross full time last year and over the season I was getting together a list of things that I thought you must have on a quality cross bike. For example, initially the tubeset was designed to be box shaped, but I knew that would be more difficult to grab when shouldering your bike, so we smoothed out the tube cross section which helped the pick-up but didn’t impact stiffness.’
Stiffness, pedalling efficiency and weight are the key factors for race performance, and they underpin every design choice on the CX Race. Kinesis also appreciates that many cross riders may want to race with more than one bike, so keeping the cost down has been another major priority. ‘You could afford to run two CX Races for the price of one high-end bike from another brand.’ says Dalton. ‘We chose scandium as the frame material due to its weight and stiffness similarities to Toray T800 carbon fibre, so the CX Race has the attributes of a carbon bike at the price of an aluminium one.’
An additional advantage of working with aluminium is the comparative ease of updating a frame’s design when compared to carbon. This means Kinesis has been able keep pace with the rapidly changing trends in cyclocross. ‘The frame is single-chainring optimized, has provisions for Di2 cable routing and offers dual brake compatibility – options for both discs and cantilevers – to offer the rider versatility,’ Dalton says.
It’s a promising combination of value and all-out performance that is likely to win many fans this coming season.
• Kinesis CXRACE - £549.99 (frame)
• Groupset - Sram Force 1
• Brakes - TRP Spyre SLC disc
• Chainset - Turn Zyante
• Bars - Fizik Carbon Cyrano
• Stem - Fizik Cyrano R1
• Seatpost - Kinesis UD
• Wheels - Reynolds Assault Tubular Disc
• Saddle - Fizik Tundra
• Weight - 8.04kg (57cm)