Cycling requires a certain amount of gear. Some of it is required to join CPOMG. The type and quality of the gear purchased have a monumental effect on the safety and experience one has engaging in the sport. Poor design, poor materials, and improper fit can easily make the experience more unpleasant than it needs to be - and limit one's performance and safety in the sport.
Having high-quality equipment that fits well doesn't necessarily mean spending lots of money. The Minnesota Cycling Association has worked hard with many local retailers to secure significant discounts on the equipment needed to train and race bikes in the league. The league is committed to getting kids on bikes regardless of one's individual financial position. If there are significant obstacles in the way, please express your interest in cycling to the head coach. It is our intention to remove obstacles to healthy lifestyle choices, and find a way to get you racing!
CPOMG has partnered with Trailhead Cycling in Champlin. Identify yourself as a REGISTERED CPOMG student-athlete, and the experienced sales staff will ensure that you are getting what you need and ensure that you are getting the MN Cycling Association discounts (on the products that Trailhead sells). Be aware that there are many different companies involved across the entire country, and each one has their own program requirements. CPOMG coaches will help families navigate these great benefits. You must be registered with the club to get the discounts.
Required Equipment:
Bike
Helmet
Trail Kit
Eye Wear
Gloves
Hydration
Optional Equipment:
Bike Computer ($25 - $35)
The bike computer allows us to track our training progress. A useful bike computer will provide trip distance, total distance, speed, average speed, and elapsed time. Nicer bike computers will also have the ability to track heart rate, which is a useful feature for all cyclists, but certainly not necessary. Finally please know that bike computers can get very sophisticated, and very expensive, with GPS tracking and power output measurements. Do not feel that these computers are necessary! They provide great information, but the need for them should be appropriate to one's abilities and level of involvement.
Training Journal
($3-$15)
Looking back over the season and analyzing our performance helps us train smarter. Often times, people achieve goals that they would have never thought they could have done when they first started to train. A journal makes those realizations visible. There are a few really good cycling specific journals for more serious athletes, but they are not necessary. Any small journal, with one page per day, will be just fine....even something as simple as a spiral-bound notebook.
Cycling Shoes
Cycling Socks
Leg and Arm Warmers: ($20-$25 per set)
Our season runs from July until the end of October. There will be weather changes as we move from the height of summer into fall, and there will be days when it is cooler outside. Additionally, temperature changes can happen within the course of a single practice or race. Leg and Arm warmers are convenient ways to control one's body temp without having to take big bulky coats and pants on the bicycle. They usually can be kept in a pocket, but offer additional warmth when needed. There are
Having high-quality equipment that fits well doesn't necessarily mean spending lots of money. The Minnesota Cycling Association has worked hard with many local retailers to secure significant discounts on the equipment needed to train and race bikes in the league. The league is committed to getting kids on bikes regardless of one's individual financial position. If there are significant obstacles in the way, please express your interest in cycling to the head coach. It is our intention to remove obstacles to healthy lifestyle choices, and find a way to get you racing!
CPOMG has partnered with Trailhead Cycling in Champlin. Identify yourself as a REGISTERED CPOMG student-athlete, and the experienced sales staff will ensure that you are getting what you need and ensure that you are getting the MN Cycling Association discounts (on the products that Trailhead sells). Be aware that there are many different companies involved across the entire country, and each one has their own program requirements. CPOMG coaches will help families navigate these great benefits. You must be registered with the club to get the discounts.
Required Equipment:
Bike
- Suspension: We recommend front-suspension only for a new rider. This will keep the cost down by a fair amount and aligns to less-is-more when getting rolling with this sport. The full-suspension bikes are a bit heavier, cost more and can introduce complexity with things like lock-outs. Now, if you are a parent: we would totally recommend getting a full-suspension bike because we are old and full-suspension makes riding the trails a LOT easier on us parents.
- Gears/derailleur: If possible, we recommend a single chain ring in the front and as many gears as possible in the back within your price range. It's one less thing to have to think about while riding, just a single shifter up and down vs. managing the front and rear gears. Less to maintain, less to go wrong with the bike. Most entry-level bikes have front and rear shifting to offer more utility, so not the end of the world, but a guideline to get rear-shifting only.
- Wheel Size: Not sure how tall your child is or expects to be, but we would encourage them to look at a 29" wheel bike if they are comfortable with it. That will usually increase the frame size to a L or XL depending on the style. For the riding most of the team does, having the 29" wheels will be a better ride on the non-technical sections and you can get a bit more mileage per pedal when cruising around and on straightaways. There is nothing in racing that is tight or technical enough that a 29" wheel would be a liability, but they does have to be comfortable with it. The correct frame size is best determined by a reputable sales person at one of the local bike stores.
- Brakes: Disc brakes are a requirement in our opinion. If the rider has an older bike it may still have caliper brakes and we can just say that they don't offer the braking power or responsiveness and it will cause no end of frustration. Every rider that has started on an older bike with caliper brakes has bought a new bike within 1-2 weeks of joining the team and brakes or shocks is the main reason.
- Older Bikes: Outside of the above recommendations, older bikes work quite well. We would recommend that any extras that have accumulated on the bike be removed, like bar-ends (not allowed for racing), streamers, things that make noise on the spokes, etc. Additionally, and contrary to normal thought, racing requires removing reflectors off the front and back of the bike as if they happen to be in a crash, they can become a projectile to injure other riders.
Helmet
- A helmet from a local bike store is required. There are helmets from big-box stores... these are not acceptable for riding with CPOMG. If you have a helmet and aren't sure of its effectiveness, please talk to one of the CPOMG coaches.
Trail Kit
- Multi-Tool with tools for your bike and within your skill set. There are lots of options for these, focus on the tools you need for your bike that you know how to use.
- Spare Tube: Even if your bike is configured for tubeless operation, having a spare tube and air pump is key to fixing a stubborn flat and preventing a long-walk. With the spare tube, you will need a pair of tire-levers.
- Air Source: A hand pump works well and is reliable, a CO2 system is much lighter, but has a limited capacity. If you are not comfortable with CO2, there are several varieties of light-weight hand pumps.
Eye Wear
- Clear / Yellow lens glasses are popular. Sun glasses tend to be too dark for portions of trail riding and will make things difficult and unsafe for the riders. Eye Protection is not required, but very strong recommended due to branches, bugs and other objects that fly around while riding. Eyes are very difficult to heal; hands, knees, elbows, collar-bones all bounce back pretty well, not eye balls.
Gloves
- You're going to run into a tree. Not if, but when. Gloves will help keep your fingers from getting scratched up from either a fall or from brush on the sides of the trails.
Hydration
- Water bottles: 1-2 water bottles depending on weather conditions. Even in cold conditions, hydration is very important to sustaining your body while riding.
- Water Pack: A water pack (ex. Camelbak) is often easier to manage vs. a water-bottle as it doesn't/can't fall of your bike.
Optional Equipment:
Bike Computer ($25 - $35)
The bike computer allows us to track our training progress. A useful bike computer will provide trip distance, total distance, speed, average speed, and elapsed time. Nicer bike computers will also have the ability to track heart rate, which is a useful feature for all cyclists, but certainly not necessary. Finally please know that bike computers can get very sophisticated, and very expensive, with GPS tracking and power output measurements. Do not feel that these computers are necessary! They provide great information, but the need for them should be appropriate to one's abilities and level of involvement.
Training Journal
($3-$15)
Looking back over the season and analyzing our performance helps us train smarter. Often times, people achieve goals that they would have never thought they could have done when they first started to train. A journal makes those realizations visible. There are a few really good cycling specific journals for more serious athletes, but they are not necessary. Any small journal, with one page per day, will be just fine....even something as simple as a spiral-bound notebook.
Cycling Shoes
- Cycling Shoes = Clip Pedals. Clip Pedals are for more experienced riders and should be considered after the rider has some experience and looking to improve their performance on the trail. Riders that convert to Clips should get several dozen miles in with them before racing as the mechanics of getting in/out of clips should be second-nature by the time they are attending a race.
Cycling Socks
Leg and Arm Warmers: ($20-$25 per set)
Our season runs from July until the end of October. There will be weather changes as we move from the height of summer into fall, and there will be days when it is cooler outside. Additionally, temperature changes can happen within the course of a single practice or race. Leg and Arm warmers are convenient ways to control one's body temp without having to take big bulky coats and pants on the bicycle. They usually can be kept in a pocket, but offer additional warmth when needed. There are
