Shimano RS30 for cyclocross?

Last week the freehub on my Kinesis’ Shimano RS10 started to show the first signs of needing a good overhaul and/or giving up the ghost entirely… when I stripped the bike for it’s weekly service the freehub seemed a little stiff, but after a quick quirt of GT40 to try and loosen it, the free hub spun freely in both directions for a moment before the pawls started to work. Unfortunately time wasn’t on my side, so I couldn’t strip off the free hub, as that requires taking the axle and bearings out, so I decided to try my Shimano RS30 in a race.

Vittoria-XG-RS31-Cyclocross

For some time I’ve been loocking at options for replacing the RS10’s and the general consensus is that decent road wheels work perfectly well in a cyclocross race – that assumes that the wheels and tyres are compatible. So on that basis puting the RS30’s to use in a race seemed the perfect solution to a mechanical dilemma.

I’m happy to say that the wheels did a sterling job and show no signs of abuse after an hour of racing around the hills of Lockleaze in the 7th round of the Western Cyclocross League. The only thing I would say is that I reckon that I bent the skewer slightly – didn’t affect the wheels, but worth noting that ‘road’ skewers might not be quite up to the job of cyclocross racing.

Western-CX-Round7-Bristol-View

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