mustang1
Guru
- Location
- London, UK
My bike was recently involved in a hickup, aka a crash, so it's gone now. I figured I'd write a little review about it.
In 2012 I took my road bike to the LBS for servicing where they had the Focus Mares AX3.0 on sale. Since my previous CX bike was stolen, I figured I could do with a replacement commuter. A 10 minute test ride later and I picked it up the following day.
Let's get the bad out of the way first. Compared to a road bike, it felt wallowy like a boat anchor. The 35mm heavy tires took time to spool up speed and anyone who told me that "wider tires have less rolling resistance" quickly got me feeling rather irksome. Talking of tires, the bike came with Continental CrossCX (I think that's what they were called) which looked like they wouldn't be too fast but ended being rather decent in terms of speed. Alas, 3 punctures in 2 weeks quickly got me changing them to schwalbe marathon supreme 35mm.
Those tires are heavy. But I never once got a puncture in 4 years.
SKS45mm mudguards and a Topeka rack (which I never used except to secure bike chains to while riding), some m520 pedals and a couple of lights made this a most excellent commuter.
But I never had any love for it. Not like I do with a road bike which flies in comparison to this lumberjack. Note, sorry if I'm offending any "I love my all purpose cx bike which can do anything".
But there were good things about the bike too. The wider tires allowed me to have a better time on gravel paths and other light off road ventures where it was absolutely faster than my MTB and bombed up hills where the MTB would flounce in a high cadence over revving slow moving bee. I have no idea where that came from.
When riding Mares, I could mix up my commute with on road and off road, splash thru puddles, ride in rain. And ya know, it wasn't that slow. But whenever the lights were green, i never used to push out the power to reach the lights before they change; mostly I wouldn't make it so ended up seeing the same people I over took a few moments earlier. On a road bike, I at least had a 50% chance that fly thru the lights before they even went amber and I could hear gasps from riders behind me as they shouted "wow did you see that guy pump out the watts and fly past those lights? That guy is like thunder!".
What they probably said was "I never knew fat guys could be so fast."
Anyway, the bike served me well, it served its purpose. It was never upgraded and when I had the crash, the rear wheel needed replacing anyway. But now it's gone and the best thing is I get to choose a new bike.
Bravo to me. Time to get the credit card out.
Stock pic
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=f...biw=412&bih=604&dpr=3.5#imgrc=nzVVza-LPZFZ4M:
In 2012 I took my road bike to the LBS for servicing where they had the Focus Mares AX3.0 on sale. Since my previous CX bike was stolen, I figured I could do with a replacement commuter. A 10 minute test ride later and I picked it up the following day.
Let's get the bad out of the way first. Compared to a road bike, it felt wallowy like a boat anchor. The 35mm heavy tires took time to spool up speed and anyone who told me that "wider tires have less rolling resistance" quickly got me feeling rather irksome. Talking of tires, the bike came with Continental CrossCX (I think that's what they were called) which looked like they wouldn't be too fast but ended being rather decent in terms of speed. Alas, 3 punctures in 2 weeks quickly got me changing them to schwalbe marathon supreme 35mm.
Those tires are heavy. But I never once got a puncture in 4 years.
SKS45mm mudguards and a Topeka rack (which I never used except to secure bike chains to while riding), some m520 pedals and a couple of lights made this a most excellent commuter.
But I never had any love for it. Not like I do with a road bike which flies in comparison to this lumberjack. Note, sorry if I'm offending any "I love my all purpose cx bike which can do anything".
But there were good things about the bike too. The wider tires allowed me to have a better time on gravel paths and other light off road ventures where it was absolutely faster than my MTB and bombed up hills where the MTB would flounce in a high cadence over revving slow moving bee. I have no idea where that came from.
When riding Mares, I could mix up my commute with on road and off road, splash thru puddles, ride in rain. And ya know, it wasn't that slow. But whenever the lights were green, i never used to push out the power to reach the lights before they change; mostly I wouldn't make it so ended up seeing the same people I over took a few moments earlier. On a road bike, I at least had a 50% chance that fly thru the lights before they even went amber and I could hear gasps from riders behind me as they shouted "wow did you see that guy pump out the watts and fly past those lights? That guy is like thunder!".
What they probably said was "I never knew fat guys could be so fast."
Anyway, the bike served me well, it served its purpose. It was never upgraded and when I had the crash, the rear wheel needed replacing anyway. But now it's gone and the best thing is I get to choose a new bike.
Bravo to me. Time to get the credit card out.
Stock pic
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=f...biw=412&bih=604&dpr=3.5#imgrc=nzVVza-LPZFZ4M: