Brakes

[jmcdowall]

Hi. I got my first cyclocross bike a few months ago, a Cannondale CX9 Ultegra. I love it, apart from one thing - the Cannondale branded brakes! They are terrible!

The back brake pretty much does nothing. The front brake squeals so much, it's embarassing. It also has pretty poor stopping power. I changed the pads, and that helped a little, but they are still garbage.

The levers seem to require far too much force to get the brakes to engage with any effectiveness. If I ride for more than an hour or two my hands are acheing.

Can anyone recommend an approach or replacement? Can you fit v-brakes to a cross bike?

Ta

jmcd

 

[jopatt]

Yes theres some tektros you can fit I think that take the same amount of cable pull to work. Alternatively there are canti to vbrake adapters you can buy that look like one half of a kind of pulley system that increases the cable pull

 

[bigring]

Canti brakes in general are pretty weak compared to V-brakes or road brakes. You can get wide profile canti that provide more leverage and power like Tektro CR720's whic work reliable, cheap and quiet as they have adjustable toe in.
If you want to pimp your bike go with American made Paul Neo-retro brakes. Cost a bundle though. approx. $200 front and back

 

[kiwirider]

Before you go spending any money, spend some time checking out pictures of Tim Johnson's bike on cyclingnews (there are pro-bike profiles of his last two years' bikes).

I ride the X6 and a friend I race against rides the X2 (I think that's the number) - which are the Canadian spec versions of the CX range. Mine has the Ultra X carbon/alloy fork, while Ron's has the EC90X all carbon fork. Both come with the 'dale branded Tektro Oryx that yours has. I was getting terrible shudder and squeal - and crap braking on wet courses. I changed to Tektro CR720s and that improved things a bit, but not much ...

My friend Ron told me that he'd had the same problems and had cured it by copying the set up that Johnson runs - which is to run the stradle pretty high (above the bottom of the head tube). I tried that and my braking problems disappeared instantly. OK, so not completely disappeared ... I still got some problems over the winter riding in really wet slushy deep snow ... but, hey, that's splitting hairs, right?! ;-)

Seriously, try that - at the most it'll cost you a new stradle (as you can't use the one that comes with the Oryx/Cannondale brakes) and a cable and a bit of fiddling. Much better than spending $200 on new brakes!

 

[fergnago]

I run tektro brakes on my surly,they squeal! it just makes other riders get out of my way!

 

[TheDude]

I put Tektro Oryx on my custom Cannondale since they were a good deal. When you get them set up well they are pretty good. One thing - slap on some Kool Stop salmon pads. Getting the pull and toe-in right is important.

 

[rushworth]

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/p/cycle/7/Salsa_La_Cruz_2009/5360042517/

Here is the latest on the British X Cross scene....disc brakes!