Cycle-Smart’s Adam Myerson snagged the 45+ Elite Masters Men’s win with his fully geared Kind Human Kudu, then stripped the cassette, zip tied the shifter lever to the brake lever, and put in a respectable performance in the Singlespeed category, too. It was only his fourth ever singlespeed race.
Myerson joined the Kind Human team a couple years ago and put out a Cross Camp with the launch of the Kudu. He’s still racing that bike, holding on to the cantilevers while most of his peers have moved onto disc brakes. Why? “Because I’m used to them and they’re lighter. I also run the brakes moto style, a holdover from the 80s when a lot of racers would put the rear brake on the left so they could brake while dismounting.”
Those aren’t the only things that make his bike unique…
If you’re going to run Canti’s, might as well make them good ones. The TRP Revox Carbon are among the most popular (and lightest).
Myerson drilled and tapped the stem because “the FSA hanger (which slots in as a headset spacer) spins, and the IRD one is too tall, which would require a -17° stem with even more spacers, so this allows me to keep a standard stem low enough without using a bunch of spacers.”
He just added the MRP chain guide on Tuesday because he would very occasionally drop a chain when backpedaling while cross chained. It’s only happened maybe a few times in four seasons on CX1. It’s on his single speed because that’s also his geared bike, he just zip ties the shifters and swaps in a different rear wheel with Origin8 spacers and a cog from the CX1 cassette.
The rear derailleur was used as the chain tensioner because that’s what they had on hand (and, you know, because this is normally his geared bike).
Gearing for the race emphasized the slower speed sections in the woods and climbs, sacrificing top end speed on the flat sections. His plan was to run a 40/17 for the first half lap, then switch to 40/19 for the remainder.
Myerson has been a test pilot for the prototype Vittoria cyclocross tires we spotted. He’s been racing the tires all season. For CX Nats, he ran the intermediate tread pattern on front, file tread in rear, with 23psi front and 25psi rear.
