Spare Wheel Carriers for Cyclocross
It’s a common dilemma: You want to ride to the start of a cyclocross race. The distance of 20 miles to the start doesn’t bother you – it’s a good warm-up. But your expensive cross tubulars will wear off their knobs quickly if you ride them on pavement. What to do?
One solution is equip your bike for the commute with a spare wheelset with road tires, and carry your cross wheels to the race. I have seen various setups, from single-wheel Bob trailers to strapping the wheels to a backpack, but all leave something to be desired.
Years ago, I read how British time trialists faced a similar problem. They did not want to wear out their tubulars on the way to their events, or worse, get a flat that couldn’t easily be repaired on the road. So they made spare wheel carriers that allowed carrying a second wheelset on the bike.
I suspect the first of these were hand-made, but the British Cyclo company offered an aluminum version. I tracked down a set, figuring that they might come in handy for cyclocross.
You can see how simple the carriers really are: a flat piece of aluminum, bent to provide some offset for the wheels to clear the cantilever brakes. There is a hole at each end. One goes over the axle of the bike’s front wheel, the other receives the axle of the spare wheel.
Toe-straps stabilize the wheels on the handlebars. With quick releases instead of wingnuts, I had to put washers under the unsupported side, so the quick release could tension, but otherwise, installation was simple.
Riding with this setup was fine, but there were a few surprises:
- Toe overlap was severe. Perhaps not a surprise if I had thought about the geometry of the setup. Tight turns are impossible: The spare wheel hits the down tube.
- The wind resistance of the two extra wheels is enormous. Now I know why even racing tricycles are so slow. On this windy day, I just was riding across town to Hahn’s house to get a ride, and I almost didn’t make it on time.
- With the most of the two extra wheels ahead of the steerer axis, cross-wind instability was severe. Fortunately, my old Alan has a low-trail geometry that is relatively unaffected by cross-winds, but on a modern ‘cross bike with a mountain bike-inspired front-end geometry, this setup might become an unmanageable handful.
Switching wheels at the race took less than a minute. My old Alan still is more than competitive against modern bikes. Or perhaps more importantly, the FMB tubulars it wears are absolutely wonderful. The race went well, too.
It was a dry day, so we didn’t get muddy, just lots of dust on our sweaty faces. The photo was taken seconds after the finish: It was fun!
Cross season is still going on. Give it a try! Do you have a way to bring along your spare wheels?
