Cross brakes problems on Specialized Singlecross Tricross

I have a specialized singlecross tricross bike with four brake levers, specialized interupter cross levers as well as drop handlebar racing bike levers on direct pull cantilever V-brakes. The drop levers pull fine with the right amount of slack but the cross levers feel spongy and cannot put full pressure before hitting the handlebar. I think the problem is that the drop levers and brakes are of the long pull, low tension variety, and the cross levers are of the conventional standard short pull high tension. The technical issues are explained in this article by Sheldon Brown:

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/cantilever-adjustment.html

But basically the two types of lever are incompatable!!

Has anyone else had this problem? I bought the bike via the Halfords cycle2work scheme. But the Evans Cycles bikes are set up this way too. I wonder if the UK supplier is setting them up with the incorrect cross levers, as I cannot find any mention of the levers on the web?

Any help appreciated.

The levers are on the Spesh site and also on Wiggle.

Best bet would be to mail Spesh directly. Whilst I think its highly unlikely Spesh would send out bikes with the wrong levers on (imagine the litigation in the States!), anything's possible.

The cross levers don't have the modulation of the main levers, but they should still work.

In my experience v's need to be set very close to the rim and the cable dead tight or the levers will have masses of travel. Have you tried adjusting the brakes til they almost touch the rim?

"The cross levers don't have the modulation of the main levers, but they should still work."

Yeah you are right. I simply adjusted the brakes to be within 1mm of the rim and this improved matters hugely. It will take me a while to get used to v-brakes and new well trued rims!

Thanks for the advice.

Hi
hope you're still out there after 2 years!! Just want to know if the brake problem was eradicated ? Just got a singlecross and the double lever setup is melting my head. Spesh haven't bothered to change the design obviously. have emailed the support so I hope they have an answer. Have adjusted the brakes to various settings but nothing lasts.
the cable to the rear brake isn't returning the pads back on release. tried tension springs etc to no avail

any advice would be great

sounds like the cables are snagging somewhere. Did you intall the levers yourself? maybe where they were cut there is not a clean cut and some of the outer is snagging? or is the cable kinked?
are the cables inner/outer new? try lubing them with some wet lube or light grease...
sounds like its nothing to do with design, just how they have been installed.

also, have you got v-brakes or cantilever brakes?
crosstop levers wont really work with v-brakes as they need more pull of the cable than cantis, you can make them work a bit with V's but not as well.

thanks for the reply!
sorry for the delay in my return. Tried all possible solutions:(
I've got to put it in for it's first service so I'll get the guys to check it out there. I don't think that it's a snag. Just a low tension problem and the compatability issue you mentioned.
Specialized have replied to my enquiry but nothing concrete.I'm sorely tempted to remove them and leave the drops.

got it serviced, the guy said they'd made a mistake and cut the cable too short, didn't make much sense to me but so far so good. just trying to sort a noisy chain now

I can imagine.
A (too) short straddle cable makes a canti brake too powerfull. It doesn't give a strong an reliable feeling, but a strange, uncertain and spongy feeling.

Because canti brakes on cyclocross / roadbikes are mainly combined with drop bars and Shimano STI or Campag Ergopower brake levers, brake setup is always tricky.

Canti brakes need more cable pull than these levers can provide.
You can overcome this by using longer straddle cables. This results in more brake shoe displacement for each mm of lever pull.

1. More brake block to rim clearance
   
2. Better brake feel and better stopping performance.
   
   

Next to that, cable routing should always be 100%. Very important. Cable finishing and adjustment always takes around 2 hours for a cross bike.

cheers Dutch cheese, that makes sense. Also settles my mind.