Bike Page > My Bicycles> Lemond Poprad CX

2001 Lemond Poprad Cyclocross

After GW & I built up the Schwinn Crosscut into a trail-worthy bike, I realized how much fun riding a cyclocross bicycle could be. I'm not really a big air rowdy kind of rider, and to me the challenge of riding a 'cross bike over trails was akin to light tackle fishing in its need for technique, attention and sometimes, patience. This is not to say that trail riding with a 'cross bike needs to be a dainty pursuit. More that you ride it different than you would a regular mountain bike. As with all types of riding, the skills carry over and complement those developed from riding front suspended, fat tire bikes.

After Matt Kelly won the first ever US gold in cyclocross, and was pictured on the cover of VeloNews riding a Lemond, I hoped that they would bring out a bike. They sat on things a bit, and then rolled out the Trek XO, an aluminum beast that didn't do much for me. I wanted steel if possible, and waited for a year until they brought out the Poprad with an Reynolds 853 main triangle (named after the city where Kelly won gold). I purchased as frameset and built it up from scratch

A number of the bits came from my parts stash and a couple lucky, wheelin' - dealin' buys from friends who had some extra bits, and the Poprad definitely benefitted from upgrades to the Chamberey and Stump. I figured that parts would definitely be getting abused, so didn't feel the need for brand new components in every location. By setting it up as an 8 speed, I was able to find a few goodies in the closeout bins - notably the XTR rear derailleur and the DA Cogset.

Click here to see the Parts List in a separate window.

Thoughts & Addendum:
(3/7/01) - I realize that this has become my favorite bicycle to ride of late. I'm sure something to do with a "newer" bike, but it rides well, makes trails a bit more technically challenging, and seems to roll over things with a bit more ease.

Current Status:
5/01 -
Rideable and used frequently.
5/17/01 -
Rear wheel down for the count. Click here for more info. No local shops had black double butted spokes in 294 mm, so I ordered some from Excel in Boulder. They were in stock and the order was sent that same day.
8/01 -
Up and running. Rebuilt the rear wheel with standard round butted spokes. See wheel notes for setup.
10/15/01 -
Switched the smooth and casing-showing Michelin Muds for a set of Geax Blades. Surprisingly, the Michelins, which were rated as 700x30 actually measured 35mm's, while the Blades which were 700x33, measured at 30mm's. I find this unfortunate, as I was hoping to stay in the mid 30's.
10/02 - 12/02 -
Raced CX on this bike. Went back to the Michelin Muds, only to find that they now were a curious sort of bubble gum green. Alas. But, they maintained their grippy rolly profile of 35mm, despite a stated "700x30". Also, after the first race, I experimented with some old XT cogsets I had lying around, and decided that it made sense to run a little wider gearing. Most of the riders I'd been seeing at the races seemded to be running 28T large cogs, so I set up an 11-28T. This was really helpful on the rest of the races. Despite printed opinions to the contrary, I think if you are running a cross bike in California, and deal with hills on a regular basis, you need a 28T.

Below are a couple of shots taken after the last CX Race - it was run hard and put away wet before the post-race cleaning.

Fall 2005 -
Been dealing with a few issues on this bike.

Wheels - During the 2003 winter, I had tried a set of Radius brakes, which did not impress me. They set up ok, but quickly got very "sticky" - they would not release fully from the rims. Further, after the second of two wet rides, I began to hear metal on metal grinding - the grey pads which were supplied had been worn completely through and served up the coup de gras on the Ritchey wheelset - etched a goodly tattoo into them. A friend built up a slightly heavier but thoroughly bombproof set of wheels for me - a set of DuraAce hubs which I had mated to a CXP33's (rear) and CXP21 (front). Nice.
Brakes - became a set of Avid Shorty 6's, which seemed to yelp a bit. Probably not helped by the way I set them up - used the wide straddle carrier which came with the Radius brakes and set them up with a fairly wide and low straddle wire. Pretty serious braking power. I replaced the front pads with Kool-Stops, and overly toed them in, which seemed to help.
Cranks - The carbon Profiles cracked again - delaminating near the pedal threads. This was the second pair to have this occur. I sent those back for warranty (no charge again) and picked up a set of Ritchey Cross Cranks. Decided to try a slightly shorter crank arm length and dropped back to a 172.5 mm. These worked well until they suddenly loosened up on a ride. By the time I limped home, the non-drive arm was stripped out. The folks at Ritchey responded immediately to an email and when we spoke, said that it was probably a warranty issue. Sent 'em back and got 'em back within two weeks, with a brank new left side arm.
Tires - Michelin no longer makes the cross tires in green. Black ones are now on the bike.
Other - At various times, both of the spring-loaded derailleur adjusters near the headtube have cracked. The beauty of this is that you can't really see the crack, as it is held in place by cable and spring tension. It's just that you notice that the shifting gets flaky in a non-replicable way. Once everything seats back in place, it works fine. These were replaced by threaded adjusters for derailleurs, which lack the wide knurling of the stock pieces. The knurling that I never used. I screwed them down tight and they're holding up OK.

Today's (10/22/05) issue -
Cranks - got up for an early AM ride and kept shaking my head as the crank arms didn't seem to line up correctly. Finally decided that they were about 6 or 7 degrees off. Popped off the cranks. The octalinks line up on the cranks. Hand set them and they definitely don't set up straight. Popped out the BB. No cracking or bending on the spindle. The inletting on the pipe ends line up straight, but again the arms don't line up. Finally found that there's a bit of movement of the cranks on the spindle. So, my question of the day - was the first generation DuraAce BB spindle different than current Octalink? (Well, yes and no - the Octalink has continued as the "V1", which the Octalink in the MTB world has been changed slightly (different splines and deeper cutout on the spindle) and is described as "V2" However, the DurAce/Ultegra BB's are the same, and supposed to work with this crankset).

Follow-up 11/02/05 - The cranks are heading back down to Ritchey USA for evaluation. I have (a) removed and reset the cranks under strong torque - nope, (b) swapped my DuraAce road cranks over to the cross bike - no slippage, (c) mounted the Ritcheys over to my road bike BB - slippage and alignment issues. The folks down at Ritchey have been quick to ask for them back, and we'll go from there.

Follow-up 07/06 - The crank saga continued for a few iterations. Between getting sick and work-business, it sometimes took a bit for me to get them on the bike, on the trails, clean them up and request another RA from Ritchey. But, they were patient and helpful. Finally, they sent back a set of cranks with new forgings. The saga is faithfully recorded and dutifully submitted here. I even web-geeked a quicky page here after a ride, to show them exactly what I meant by "not lining up".

With some trepidation, I had headed out with the new cranks. They seem to be staying in place, although the loc-tite swabbed crank bolts aren't the most solid - they need abit of monitoring to make sure they stay tight. At this point, they seem to work - quite well! They did fine through a day's stomping up climbs with JimG and have been enjoying the evening post-work loops over to China Camp. I'd kind of forgotten how much I enjoyed riding this bike, and the feel of a cross bike on the trails is always excellent. Nice to have this bicycle up and running again.

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This page's Last Update: July 14, 2006

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