Earlier this year I attended a cross clinic and my key takeaway was that I needed to upgrade my brakes. I had an offline discussion with the coaches and they brought up a few key features that my setup was missing.
First, they had the "euro style" brake lever setup. Basically, the levers are swapped so the rear brake is on your left hand. This is a huge benefit while dismounting prior to obstacles. You can get your leg over, hold the top tube with your right hand, and actually scrub speed at the same time. Currently, I'm having to keep my right hand on the rear brake so I can slow down without going over the bars with using my left hand on the front brake.
Secondly, the brake hanger on the front brake is positioned really high. This helps to reduce the power on the front brake. Remember, we're trying to "scrub speed" and not stop on a dime. My current setup is way to strong and results in lots of chatter in the front fork.
Lastly, the higher end brakes look more pro and they should be easier to adjust.
Last year I upgrade the wheels, so this year it had to be the brakes. I got a set of Pauls Touring Cantis installed by the folks at Velshop (photo below). Some folks put the NeoRetro on the front and Touring on the back. The NeoRetro is more "eurostyle" and looks cool, but they stick out and become a "leg grabber" so they put the Touring on the back. I stuck with the Touring on both to keep the maintenance the same. BTW, the Pauls came with some "post style" pads which I didn't install based on the shop recommendation. They placed on the brake shoes that take the pad inserts. This should be much easier for maintenance since you don't need to "start from scratch" when you replace your pads.
My first ride/race with them was last week at Psycho cross. I finally made it out to the park this week to get some more practice with them also. Totally awesome having the euro setup. Much easier to hit the barriers with speed during the dismount. Actually, I'm sure the setup change was probably the biggest difference instead of the phyiscal brake change. Something to consider since it was about $250 with installation. However, they look great and feel great so I'm convinced it has been a "worthy" upgrade.
Here's a good article on brakes in Velonews
2 comments:
Interesting. I don't understand how the cable would be the clearance issue. I would think the fork crown would be the larger issue and that the fork crown would shave off the mud before it got to the cables.
Does mud collect between the folk and the cable causing a larger mud collection area? Totally curious as I never got into cyclocross racing but like to know these things.
I didn't realize that disc brakes are not legal in UCI rules for cyclocross. That's interesting.
Good learning day. Thx!
I agree the cable isn't much with the clearance. The fork is definitely the spot. Looks like we're getting rain this week, so I'll finally get to try the new brakes in mud.
Yes, UCI is lame about the disc brakes. OBRA allows them, but you don't see any A cat riders with them. Cross is very "old school".
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