I ride a 2003 Fondriest Crossroad that I assembled last year and did some racing with it. I did not ride with it a lot since I had my bike 1 or 2 weeks before my first race so i just suffered without ever really knowing my bike. Now that snow melted and trails are opening I think I might have a braking issue as my road bike (campy brake only levers with 105 brakes) are outperforming my 105 combi levers with Shorty 6 brakes...Is that normal? I thought the cantis would be much better. I even put orange Kool stop pads but it did not help enough.
I think that my problem may be from the 105 levers not being as efficent as campys but cantis should be able to make up for the lack of braking power...or am I just being ignorant..
My other question is if anyone has ever experienced Velomax Circuit wheels in 'cross ... I'm looking for a good set of wheels that I can use for training and off-road riding.
I ride a 2003 Fondriest Crossroad that I assembled last year and did some racing with it. I did not ride with it a lot since I had my bike 1 or 2 weeks before my first race so i just suffered without ever really knowing my bike. Now that snow melted and trails are opening I think I might have a braking issue as my road bike (campy brake only levers with 105 brakes) are outperforming my 105 combi levers with Shorty 6 brakes...Is that normal? I thought the cantis would be much better. I even put orange Kool stop pads but it did not help enough.
I think that my problem may be from the 105 levers not being as efficent as campys but cantis should be able to make up for the lack of braking power...or am I just being ignorant..
My other question is if anyone has ever experienced Velomax Circuit wheels in 'cross ... I'm looking for a good set of wheels that I can use for training and off-road riding.
Thx for all
There is a lot that goes into great braking. Canti set-up is a little fussy, but Sheldon Brown's articles should help: http://sheldonbrown.com/cantilever-adjustment.html http://sheldonbrown.com/canti-trad.html Getting the mechanical advantage set right and compatible with the levers is important. KoolStop Salmon color pads are the best I have found. The other issue I have seen and dealt with is cables/housing/ends, etc. Again another Sheldon Brown article helps: http://sheldonbrown.com/cables.html A "demel tool" with cut-off wheel can make for the best cable ends I have seen. Cable routing makes a big difference in brake effectiveness. You will see the good/bad/ugly examples in great pictures in the above article. I don't have much direct experience with Campagnolo brake levers with Canti brakes, but they sure are nice on a pure road set-up. I don't know if any of my canti-Shimano brake levered bikes can stand that comparison. I have 4 bicycles with the canti-Shimano lever combinations. 3 of them have Avid cantis and our 700C tandem has LX cantis. The minute details in Sheldon's articles do make a significant difference.
