Cannondale CAADX brakes

patrick1976

Hello all,

I am considering investing in a Cannondale CAADX, having taken the 105 version out for a spin the other week. I really liked it.

My only concern is the brakes. They are Promax, and frankly didn’t stop the bike that brilliantly when I was out. The guy in the shop (Evans) said that they would take a few weeks to bed in, and that they would make the necessary adjustments at the 5 week service in due course.

Looking online, however, I have come across a fair number of other people saying that the brakes may not be that great. And in fact, another guy at the same bike shop said to me “I can’t believe they put those brakes on that bike” (the idea being that this was where they had compromised when speccing the bike). Other than that, the reviews are excellent.
The Ultegra model has hydraulic brakes, which I imagine would be super. The problem is that it is a full £500 more expensive than the 105 model (£1500 vs £1000).

The other option that I am thinking of is the Specialized Diverge. A slightly different bike…but it has good brakes (TRP Spyre) and I am thinking it could also be a good option for me. The Sora offer is on sale for £800 right now.
I have also tried, and ruled out for various reasons – Pinnacle Arkose, Norco Search and Threshold, Genesis (which I found a bit heavy).

I should add that I am something of a novice with regard to bikes and am not particularly technically minded. The purpose that I would be buying the bike for is that of commuting – 4 miles each way, but somewhat bumpy roads.

If you have any advice then that would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks very much.

boblo

Buy the 105 model and put Spyres on if you don't get on with the Promax's. I did just that but the Promax's are fine. I only changed as I got a set of Spyres from a chum for next to nothing.

the_rover

I've got the tiagra version and the brakes are good, they've def got better with use.

patrick1976

Thanks for your responses, guys - appreciated!

Avenger197396

I have a CAADX 105. I looked at a long list of different bikes before buying as I needed a combined commuter/winter bike to save my Van Nicholas road bike for glorious summer days whilst buying at £1K limit because of my Cycle to Work scheme.

The bike as a whole is super but I would conceed the Promax brakes are a bit meh. I wouldn't let them put you off though. My plan is to use them until they either need replacing or I have a bit of spare cash and nothing more important to spend it on.

I live in uber hilly Devon, ride through a forest, river path and city streets to get to work and I'm yet to not stop when I need to. I'm a bit sceptical about the whole Diverge et al gravel bike scene to be honest, I think they play on the whole n+1 insecurities of bike owners and I'm yet to find a gravel road near to me, plenty of muddy ones though!

If you have any other questions about the bike I'll do my best to help.

patrick1976

hi Avenger. Thank-you very much indeed for your detailed post, and apologies for not being able to get back to you earlier as I was away for the weekend. Very interesting to hear your views. I am trying the Diverge tomorrow and will keep you posted as to how I get on Cheers, Patrick

The Rookie

In my experience Promax are a dreadful disc calliper, but a swap is easy and some much better ones needn't cost a fortune!

patrick1976

So I went for the Cannnodale in the end. Evans had a 15% reduction on the CAADX which brought the hydraulic version just within range. Have hopefully attached a photo. The mudgaurds are sks wide which seem to fit well. Thanks very much for the advice!

andy9964

There you go

patrick1976

Thanks

Avenger197396

Since my last post I seemed to have jinxed myself :evil:

Problem after problem with the Promax brakes despite my best efforts to sort them out myself. I ended up taking one apart to have a good look. Not good. Machine tolerances of about half a yard and seems to have been cast from pig iron. I have since replaced with TRP Hy/Rd and its night and day. I actually ended up locking up the stock rear tyre and flatting it when I had to slow suddenly when a dog ran across the road in front of me. They require a degree of subtlety which I'm betting used to. I've also replaced the Scwalbe Sammy Slicks with Clemnts X''Plor USHs. My commute is a mix of surfaces when I'm feeling playful and the USHs are excellent on all surfaces.

The entire swap out cost me £190 in total but has honestly transformed the bike from good to excellent. The replacement of the brakes took me 15 minutes and was simple. My only criticism of the Hy/Rds is that there is a little more play in the levers than I normally like as you have to allow room for the reservoirs to close. The upside is that you can modulate very precisely. All in all the money was well spent albeit I had the stuff delivered to work so my wife didn't find out. The swaps have been visually subtle so she won't notice. :twisted:

the_rover

I'm loving the c/dale Cx but having used the bike a bit more I'm going to say the brakes are average as opposed to good which I suggested before.
Called into the LBS today and asked about changing them. This is prob a no brainier and a daft question but I left with these options.
1, change them for a shimano replacement, can't recall the model etc but it'll cost me £70 fitted.
2, TRP spyres, think it was about £100 fitted.
3, this is prob the no brainier but he has a set of unused TRP spyres SLC which will also cost me £100.

No 3??

Cheers.

patrick1976

No. 3 I would have thought. That said, I did try the Specialized Diverge which had ordinary TRP Spyres on and they seemed good, although not as strong as hydraulic. My own shimano hydraulics are currently squealing like a banshee which will hopefully be resolved shortly at the 5 week service . I put some oil on the bike recently and I wonder if it is somehow connected i.e. did some oil drip onto the brakes or something. I really don't know, but generally speaking the Caadx is great.

The Rookie

I did warn you about the promax....what Cannondale are doing fitting that shite to that frame is beyond me!

I probably wouldn't have jumped all the way to the TRP's but they are very nice brakes.

the_rover

patrick1976 wrote:

No. 3 I would have thought. That said, I did try the Specialized Diverge which had ordinary TRP Spyres on and they seemed good, although not as strong as hydraulic. My own shimano hydraulics are currently squealing like a banshee which will hopefully be resolved shortly at the 5 week service . I put some oil on the bike recently and I wonder if it is somehow connected i.e. did some oil drip onto the brakes or something. I really don't know, but generally speaking the Caadx is great.

Cheers, in hindsight a daft question. The LBS are fitting the spyre SLC next week, as The Rookie implies the promax brakes don't do the rest justice.

arthur_scrimshaw

I've got promax cable disks on my Charge Plug, I got the bike cheap as Wiggle were clearing them out, my intention was to upgrade the brakes etc from my written off CX which had Spyres on it (an upgrade from BB5s which were oem)
I've done about 2000 miles on the bike and still not bothered to change the brakes over, I wasn't exactly overwhelmed by the difference between the BB5s and the Spyres, the promax were no worse than either and have performed adequately from day 1. Compared to the hydraulics on my Ultegra Synapse however they are very average. I just put it down to Cable vs Hydraulics.

The Rookie

I had a Promax calliper on one bike and found it shocking, I'm now running a generic calliper found under many labels (including Clarkes) and it's much much better.