Best cyclocross bike under £1000 and other CX chat

^ looks like double tap leavers and BB7s?

Yep, I reckon.

Canti brakes. Anyone good at setting them up? I appear to suck at it. I've read sheldon's advice, toed the pads in but they still feel sluggish and I get epic fork judder if I really grab at the front. Help!

Ensure all cable runs smoothly through the outers and ferrules, if fork judder is a massive issue buy a fork mounted canti stop , like this:

Canti's feel sluggish because of the increased travel of the pads. The advantages are that it allows for gentle braking to be applied more easily which is pretty useful when off road/on grass etc,. as the narrow tyres lock up all too easily. Also allows for greater pad to rim clearance so in mud and grit the pads are less likely to be continually rubbing against the rim.
Brake judder on front is a nuisance though and not easy to get rid off unless you change to solution Gabe has shown (although never used one as I just live with the judder!)

The cables feel lumpy and almost like they are 'indexed' - especially the rear. Wonder if I should upgrade the cables.

The stopping power on the tops is particularly weak; it's a reall struggle to stop the bike. On the drops they are OK - I guess you get more leverage from the bottom of the leaver - but on the tops it feels unsafe in traffic. I've tried reducing the angle of the hanger cable and that's sparked them up a fraction, but they still feel scary compared to calipers and discs I have on other bikes.

105 (5700 new style) leavers and Tektro CR720s BTW.

I've heard Koolstop salmons might be a good option for replacement pads?

I reduced judder buy moving the yoke(?) up or down... unfortunately I can't actually remember which I did... I think it was down.

Either way, my point is it can be reduced, with some fiddling.

Probably moving up as the cable between yoke and cable hanger is shorter. The judder is caused by that cable movement which is why the fork mounted cable hanger works.

If brakes are that bad it may be worth changing pads. I use green Swisstops which work well.

Alternatively, Fibrax are a good cheap pad upgrade. The downside is they wear quickly, but performance is good.

Yep, even cheaper than just changing the pads. Just need to buy a new disc compatible frame set, some new hubs or wheels and and some discs.

OK so I changed the front pads to Swiss Stop Greens and payed with the set-up a bit to get a shorter cable hanger on the front and the rear. A bit of an improvement, braking feels pretty good on the drops and ok-to-usable on the hoods.

Gabe - is that an after-market disc upgrade on a super-cross? Where did that photo come from? I'm surprised there's enough clearance for the disc.

Prototype for Cannondale cross team. 135mm spacing

135mm makes sense for these bikes now- MTB hubs are cheap and plentiful

I'm finishing my new cross bike this weekend, and putting SwissStop greens in my TRP EuroXs with nokon brake cable and a fork uphanger. On my last frame the brakes (TRPs with standard pads, campag cables) were sketchy to commute on but good enough for racing, I'm hoping that on the new frame the pads plus compressionless housing/better routing are going to significantly improve what I can get out of cantis on the road :s

I thought it bat-shit-crazy that the 2012 CAADX & SuperCross didn't feature discs.

I'm going for a replacement disc fork with a BB7 at the front and an XT V brake with travel agent at the back.

FWIW the Apex STIs and BB7s I've just fitted to my airnimal seem spot on with Gore low friction cables (full length). But then again I weigh fuck-all which might help a bit.

Fun and games.

OK so I changed the front pads to Swiss Stop Greens and payed with the set-up a bit to get a shorter cable hanger on the front and the rear. A bit of an improvement, braking feels pretty good on the drops and ok-to-usable on the hoods.

The shorter cable hanger may reduce judder but may also reduce power. I have used mini Vs before which did seem to offer better breaking if you don't feel the canti's will give you what you want. You will need to run pads closer to rim but sounds like you are riding on road anyway so shouldn't be an issue.

I went back to cantis as the reduced power and better clearance are more of an advantage as my braking is largely done off road. (Don't have many junctions and no traffic lights on roads where I live so I don't need brakes on the road!)

I thought a shorter cable hanger increased mechanical advantage?

The crosser is going to be used for racing and the occasional commute and the occasional light tour - unfortunately the occasional commute often involves the occasional nutter who just pulls out anyway with smile and a wave, like on the B413 this morning, where drivers just can't seem to control themselves. FFS.

I may have misunderstood. I thought you had reduced the length of cable from yoke to hanger, rather than reduced the length of straddle cable and increased the length from yoke to hanger.

I thought reducing the straddle cable length therefore making a straighter line across the arms increased mechanical advantage?

Sorry it's me being a clutz and mixing my terms up. The yoke is sitting lower and the straddle cable is shorter and that in theory should increase mechanical advantage as I understand it.

Interestingly on the front the yoke was sitting halfway up the headtube.

Now with gongs!

http://www.boardmanbikes.com/cx/cx_team.html

Thinking of going tubeless, the 'homebrew' mountain bike way is to use a 20 inch inner tube, any idea what tube to use for 700c cross wheels? Should I just bite the bullet an buy the Stansnotube 'cross kit? Anybody else running tubeless?

Was chatting about this over lunch.

This is worth a read:

http://cyclocosm.com/2011/10/tubeless-for-cyclocross-the-complete-saga/

Doesn't bode well then...

Michelin have shelved tubeless for the road. It's looking like it's not really caught on.

Apparently latex tubes are pretty good for minimising pinch flats in CX.