cycle cross good all rounder ?

blorg

jpembroke wrote:

You can get a lot more power out of cantis if you replace the yoke with a straddle cable and hanger set-up. This will allow you to move the cable closer to the wheel and improve mechanical advantage. My Oryx brakes stop me just fine.

Thanks for the tip- I am having mini-Vs fitted at the moment but have another bike also with STI-canti combo on which I might give this a go.

jpembroke

I ditched Mini-Vs in favour of the Oryx canti brakes. Trouble with Mini-Vs is that in order to get decent power out of them you have to run them very close to the rim meaning they clog up with mud and you can't release them without undoing the cable.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

blorg

Ha OK, I'll see how I go with them, it seems any big tyre clearance braking solution with STI levers has it's difficulties. In my case it is for a lightweight touring bike that would mostly be on road, rather than cyclocross, so I may be OK with running them very close to the rim.

ronkerr

ndodd wrote:

i'm after a road bike that i can commute on , day rides and maybe a bit of light touring i know there are plenty of bikes out there but in my local shop they have a schwin fasttrack cycle cross bike its comfy and there is room for mudguards . It was at £800 but now reduced to £600 so would this make a good all rounder at a good price its £100 cheaper than the specialized tri cross

I was in a simialr position a year a go and bought a Kona Jake (£650, but got 40% off with cycle to work) which I have been very happy with. I changed the cross tyres to shwalbe marathon plus 28s pretty quickly (which are far better if you are mostly on the road) and have had no problems with it over about 2500 miles. it gets a bit of abuse pulling a childs tagalong from time to time but I dont go off road that much.

Have recently bought a Felt Z35 for road use and if you are only on the road would definitely get a road bike instead, but I continue to use the Jake frequently when the weather isnt great. The kona comes with mudguard eyelets but I tend to use race blades so I can take them on and off.

All the best with whichever bike you go for.

blorg

blorg wrote:

Ha OK, I'll see how I go with them, it seems any big tyre clearance braking solution with STI levers has it's difficulties. In my case it is for a lightweight touring bike that would mostly be on road, rather than cyclocross, so I may be OK with running them very close to the rim.

Well I got them today and my god they are a huge imrprovment. They stop at least as well as the calipers on my road bike, indeed I am worried I have dinged my back wheel a bit with the thwack it hit the ground with after it was thrown up into the air with my first braking attempt. Only disadvantage I can see so far via-a-vis road levers is the modulation (or lack thereof, they just grip) but I can see how mud might be an issue (not so much for me, I'm comparing with calipers on a road bike.)