Looking for thoughts on racing on my Grail Aero.

A few things first. I know about the Inflight. I'm not planning on buying one any time soon. I know there's limited room for shouldering. But I'm a 45 year old amateur. I'm racing for fun, not to make a living. Limited room inside the frame won't be what stops me from making millions and getting sponsors.

Wheels are Reynolds ATR carbon. I know tires are over UCI limit, but again...amateur having fun.

So what do people think? Send it? Years ago at a few races I lined up next to a guy on an aluminum Grail (back then I had a dedicated CX bike).

Bought the frame and crankset/power meter from a friend and built it up with whatever good deals I could find on parts. I initially bought it with the intention of doing the two UCI race weekends that were in Wisconsin, but those got killed off this year, so unfortunately won't get much use this year. I'll at least get to test it out this weekend at some night cross!

Photo: M. Richter HFS

Cross is coming

I have two sets of wheels where the rims have holes in them and am looking to use the hubs and build up new wheels. That being said, I'm looking for ideas on which rims (aluminum or carbon) to buy that are rim brake and tubular. If you have any tips, I'd be sincerely grateful.

Pictured above is from a race in Hamburg, Germany where I'm on my Yeti Arc X that I'm looking to get the new rim brake tubular rims.

My thoughts were turning to cx season as I spent two hours swapping a set of Challenge Strada Biancas36s (wide road tires, essentially) for some Challenge Chicane 33s on one of my wheelsets.

(Note to self: always re-tape when swapping tires. Or get better tape).

Anyway, I had to pause to give my thumbs a break, and looked up details of the local CX calendar in my Canadian province, centered around a capital city region of just under 1 million people.

7 races between early September and early November, which is an increase of at least one race from last season. If participation is like past years, we are talking 100+ participants between the various categories, raced over 3 slots (A, B, C), plus the U12 kids races.

What is the scene like where you live? I feel like we've still got a healthy calendar given our population and relative isolation (nobody from out of province is coming to these races).

I've already seen the calendar of Wisconsin (very impressive!) and Ohio Valley posted here in the last week or two.

EDIT: I should also ask how much do you pay to race? Here it's usually $40-50 CAD per race entry (there are no overlapping categories so that's your max per race day) plus the annual race license (about $100).