Best cyclocross bike under £1000 and other CX chat

Sram Apex to BB7 via Goodridge compressionless housing btw.

I find they need no more adjusting than a regular road caliper or v brake - bit of a tweak every 500 miles or so.

How do you set yours up? I loosen then brake caliper, dial in the static pad, clamp the brake leaver, tighten the caliper then back off the static pad a click. Seems to sort them out.

I find they need no more adjusting than a regular road caliper or v brake - bit of a tweak every 500 miles or so.

Lucky bugger. I had to adjust mine every 50 miles or so, and was never able to do an emergency stop on them (as shown by a bent fork following a rear end incident with a Renault 5) and Brixton Cycles couldn't improve them. A BB7 on the front has made a world of difference.

How do you set yours up? I loosen then brake caliper, dial in the static pad, clamp the brake leaver, tighten the caliper then back off the static pad a click. Seems to sort them out.

I move the pads in until when I spin the wheel I can hear the "chink chink chink" of the pad/rotor meeting, then back the pads out one notch.

This means that you can get full braking power just before the levers hit the bars.

However, you need to keep an eye on it, and adjust the pads inward pretty often, lest you end up in the situation where you get full braking power after the levers hit the bars- and lose your ability to stop.

You can adjust them so that the biting point is the same as regular calipers, but that means that the pads drag so badly on the disc you a) make a racket and b) feel like you are always cycling uphill/into a headwind.

On the Cotic, which has a Tektro drop brake lever to BB5 the braking is awesome, however- simply because the Tektro levers pull enough cable, so you can have the pads far enough away from the disc not to drag, whilst still being able to pull them onto the disc with a short pull of the brake lever.

You can adjust them so that the biting point is the same as regular calipers, but that means that the pads drag so badly on the disc you a) make a racket and b) feel like you are always cycling uphill/into a headwind.

Good for training though ;)

Are you sure something, somewhere isn't compressing? Dodgy cable housing cut for example?

Lucky bugger. I had to adjust mine every 50 miles or so, and was never able to do an emergency stop on them (as shown by a bent fork following a rear end incident with a Renault 5) and Brixton Cycles couldn't improve them. A BB7 on the front has made a world of difference.

Which calipers were you using before you switched to BB7s?

I'm 100% certain that the cabling is perfect- I spent some time fettling it.

Can imagine. Sorry to hear they aren't working out for you. A quick google shows some Salsa Veya owners with Apex + BB7 and they don't seem to have any complaints, so I do wonder if it's something specific to your set up. Which makes me sound like I'm saying you're doing it wrong - I'm not, honest ;)

Oh, they work well enough- I'm happy with the power, feel/modulation, yada yada, I just wish they were not such a pain in the arse to keep happy.

SRAM shifter being the curpuit? we had 'cross bike at work with variation of groupset, oddly enough the Shimano one (Tiagra and 10five, my number keys isn't work) worked very well, but the Rival and Apex felt quite spongy.

Well yeah, maybe, but there seems to be people on tinternet with SRAM Apex and BB7s who don't have the same problem. Or maybe they just don't report it ;)

Which calipers were you using before you switched to BB7s?

The stock brakes on the Genesis Croix de Fer: BR R505, which I think are the Tiagra discs you use, and Tiagra shifters. I spent hours on them, including new inner cables and refinishing every cable end but had nothing but sloppy results. I even heard from the bike's original designer who now works for Evans on their in house ranges (Pinnacle etc), but got no more help from him other than a suggestion of new pads and sanding the discs.

Basically, I agree, if you really need to stop you kind of need to be in the drops. This isn’t very good for city riding though which is why I think the cross-tops and mtb hydro’s is probably more appropriate. That or I’ve been toying with single front ring (smaller size, say 43), left hand front brake (hydro) and then a cable on the right with the shifter? Anyway, that’s me musing! In the short term, you’re very much right about the cable flex. I’ve heard that fitting some nokon cables will have an immediate impact as well. Unfortunately we don’t sell the nokon’s but you can get them from wiggle or crc in no-time. They won’t flex nearly as much as will really improve the performance – well, bring it to the level you’d expect at least. I’ve cc’d James who now works for us but was the designer of the CdF to see if he has anymore hints.
[Quote=James]It sounds more like a pad friction issue? I could lock the rear wheel on Croix de Fer test bikes from the drops and could brake well from the lever hoods too, but the lever feel was definitely softer than a caliper brake although they are designed to work together. One thing I’ve noticed over the winter is that road salt ruins pads (Shimano are still working on how to overcome salt glazing on pads) and it may be that the pads and rotors are contaminated. Commuting rarely builds up enough heat to clear the brakes of grime and road oil and even diesel exhaust soot can contaminate pads (as you notice after putting MTBs on the roof and driving a few hours to ride – brake performance can be totally stuffed from motorway grime). Have you tried fitting new pads and sanding off the rotors?
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I tekro drop levers and full Vees on the CX commuter. I will upgrade to discs at some point, and part of me was considered going STi. Reading this convinces me to stick to my ugly, inelegant, but solid mix of MTB parts.

mini v-brake SF! mini v-brake!

I have a cable pull amplifier, i might put that on today and see what difference that makes

I'm assuming you have the silver road BB7s, not the dark grey MTB ones. Cable pull should be correct. That dosent garantee consistency though.

Yep, silver road version- it's simply that the Apex lever (and I suspect from AndyP's experience also Campag) does not pull enough cable to work the caliper correctly.

When paired with a physically bigger Tektro lever the brakes are awesome, as the lever pulls a lot more cable.

Yep, silver road version- it's simply that the Apex lever (and I suspect from AndyP's experience also Campag) does not pull enough cable to work the caliper correctly.

When paired with a physically bigger Tektro lever the brakes are awesome, as the lever pulls a lot more cable.

This was definitely my experience with Campag levers. I invested a ridiculous amount of time on trying to get them set up perfectly but could never, ever get them to work as well as they ought to.

Typical Campag

I'm understanding why andyp shelved them now. I'm thinking that raising the point in which the cable inner fits into the lever would increase pull slightly. But I havent seen the inside of a Apex lever. So I've no idea if there's space. Plus it sounds like a PITA for something that should work out of the box.

Nope.

Update on the On-One carbon CX:
http://www.on-one.co.uk/news/products/q/date/2011/10/07/carbon-cross-peak-performance