I’m on a Spesh Crux Elite with the standard canti’s it came with – anyone got any recommendations for an upgrade? What are the very best canti’s in terms of power? I don’t like riding with “no” brakes!!!

Mini v’s or normal v’s with adaptors are IME the only way on a canti-only bike.

These are supposed to be very easy to set up but as far as power goes all cantis are much of a muchness TBH.

Have Mini vs on the tri cross

Good question. I’ve tried umpteen sorts of cantis and honestly, they really aren’t much of a muchness at all. I’ve just upgraded some Crux Elite brakes for a friend as she hated the rubbish ones it came with. I fitted some Froggleg-style brakes, TRP Eurox, and they were a great improvement; good for CX racing but still not particularly strong and need a bit of fiddling to get them to work the way you want. More power comes from things like Avid Shorty 4 or 6, (cheap but also quite fiddly to set up) and Avid Shorty Ultimate (good but very expensive), Shimano ones are good. I’ve just started using CX-70s and I like them. They have as much stopping power as dual-pivot road calipers and were particularly easy to set up. If you want even more power, go to mini-Vs or TRP CX9.0. These are powerful but have less mud clearance than cantis, there’s very little pad travel so they don’t cope well with wobbly wheels or swapping between wheels with different rim widths and they need adjustment as the pads wear.

I’m not a proper crosser, so, pinches of salt but I stuck cheapo Tektro BMX mini-vs on mine and even with the standard pads they work better than any canti I’ve tried. Pad clearance isn’t as good as cantis, but other than that mud clearance seemed much the same- the frame and forks were more restrictive than the brakes.

I never rode them in the worst conditions a racer would though.

I ‘be just done my first race with the new Campagnolo CART cx cantilevers. Very pleased, lots of power and control.