Changing forks on Cyclocross to fit discs

Eiger

Hi everyone,

I want to put discs on my Tricross, but what are my options? I've no idea how much the curent carbon forks weigh - does anyone know? Has anyone does this themselves? If so, what brakes have you replaced it with? I like the Julies on my old MTB, they worked well and were pretty good value.

Monty Dog

Presuming you're using your existing STIs you're limited to mechanical discs and only one is available with the right cable pull for road levers - the Avid BB7 road - MTB levers have longer cable pull and it's harder to adjust an MTB brake to work as well - it does work but there's less adjustment or modulation. The Avid is a good brake though. In terms of forks, you need to measure your crown-race to drop-out dimension - many disc forks are in fact MTB forks and a bit longer than a road fork which changes the steering geometry - not badly, but it does raise the front of the bike a bit. I expect your tricross forks weight about 600g.

Eiger

Thanks very much Monty -

I can replace levers if necessary. I also ride fixed so no gears to speak of - but I would like to keep my bars - I never really use the drop downs, but as I have my hands on the bull horns, I wouldn't want to get rid of them altogether. I didnt think about that when I first considered using hydralic discs.

I suppose I can consider forks later so we can park that for now. To sum up: Are you saying if I want to get my horns I cannot do hydralic discs?

Thanks

Monty Dog

Fitting hydraulics will be tricky on anything but a flat bar because of the bar clamp - road bars are a different diameter so you'd have to do some mods to whereas you'd be able to use the Avids with your existing brake levers. Not sure whether your existing forks accept a disc brake either - you need a disc specific fork