A reluctant gravity rider getting something road related for fitness and figure a CX bike will allow me to mix the odd bridlepath in the road rides to stave off the boredom.
I’m in the cotswolds with all of its lovely mud and wondering whether to get something with discs or live with canti’s?
Currently thinking about the Genesis Vapour, or one of the Whyte CX bikes.

Ideas?

I’ve got a Cotic Roadrat I use for commuting and general mucking around and I’ve fitted hydraulic discs. Total overkill for the rat, cable disc brakes would be ample, but I just can’t see why you wouldn’t have disc brakes on a CX bike, Or a road bike for that matter. The braking a so much better and the weight penalty is zero tenths of FA! One of the main benefits is if you buckle a wheel or break a spoke, you can still ride and have brakes. Yeah, they can be noisy, especially when it’s wet ant if you’re on gritty/dirty ground, but so what. The benefits outweighs the drawbacks.

I dunno if I set it up wrong but I get quite a bit of brake judder with my cantis which isn’t very pleasant. Braking power was ok but not great in the wet.

Just got a new Kaffenback frame which takes discs so I will be running BB7s – seems like a much better idea.

I suppose they are heavy-ish though.

If a pure racer then I’d be equivocal about discs* but as a do everything bike then I think they make much more sense than cantis-more power (limited by traction admittedly), less likely to be rubbish in the wet, prob actually stop you on a mtb trail and less rim wear.

*Not used discs on cx bike btw 😉

I’d not be taking the discs off my X that I use pretty much as you’ve described.

I use a Pompetamine as a cross/winter bike and the BB7s it has are just excellent. No wear on the rims, and excellent all-weather stopping power. Way more than the contact patch of the tyre.

I run discs on my commuter/trainer/winter/do-it-all bike. It’s so much better, in every way. I won’t be going back to rim brakes.

I’ll be going discs on the good roadie too, once the tech catches up.

i have a charge filter, fitted with tektro lyra discs, they are ok but no better than that.
ive upgraded them with shimano rotors (a quantum leap forward from the tektro ones) and tbh there is no danger of breaking traction on the front, the rear can be locked but not by accident.
BUT, i know they will still work in the wet or if i buckle a wheel and the pads are going to last a long time too.
thinking i may try some of the new shimano ones next year.

Discs. Hell yes. No question.

As others said, if racing, jury is still out. If commuting they make sense. I’m thinking of adding a second set of lightweight road wheels and tyres, so will probably go cantis for easy of wheel sourcing.

Other than for pure cx racing, discs without a doubt.

Discs. Hell yes. No question.

^^^ this.

I’ve got an old Tricross with V-brakes for commuting duties, and the occasional r**d ride. Really miss the braking power and would really like to be able to stop in the wet – so am seriously considering getting rid and getting the new model, solely for disc brakes!

A smidge heavier since the disc conversion but prefer the braking by sizable margin. Consistent in poor weather after riding both in muddy and road film conditions. Not having the bike covered in brake and rim grime after a long road ride.

Ponder what the bouncy-bouncy gravity bike would be like, and how you would ride it, if it had pre-V-brake cantis on it…

Right. Well then. Looks like that’s been decided! and sorry ebay user vnward – I’m most likely not going to be bidding on your bike.

I miss the good old days when this thread would be a 10 page flame a thon.

Discs +many. I loved my first CX bike but the only way you could slow down was to hit something. Discs on my Boardman (BB5s) are a joy. Really love riding it on and off road. Wouldn’t go back to canti’s.

Ideally id have some cx specific lightweight hydrolic disc brakes that integrate with my shifters, but not sure that exists yet.
dont need disc for races really and i can lock the rear on my cant’s, i seem to be the only one?

Answered

Do the new shimano calipers need new style levers or will they work with old ultegra?

Discs on a cx bike – absolutely, no question (racing possibly excepted).

I switched to discs, but ended up switching back to cantis on the rear. Extra weight and squeeky rotor (bb7s)

I use cantis and BB7s and like them both with pros and cons for each. Think riding style adapts depending on what you use. Mind you I happily rode Stanmer with V brakes then went to discs. Then back to Vs briefly and hit just about every other tree.

Vapour owner here, terrific all round bike though you are going to want switch the crappy wheels. Got it for the BB7s, canti scare me.

We need to stop calling them CX bikes. Maybe “rough stuff”? thats what I use.Just a thought.
If you are racing its CX and discs are probably not needed.
If its riding the tracks and woods with roads etc where you want to stop then discs are nice. Even the crappy Tektros on my Cotic X are better than the well set up Canti’s or mini V’s on my other bikes for general use.

I had the option of disks or cantis on cx bike I recently bought. Only a £40 difference.
Settled on canti brakes. Mainly because it will be cheaper to upgrade wheels.
I can lock up both wheels easilly enough .. Surprised others on here appear to be unable to?

For general riding then discs. Cantis are fine for an all out race machine but if you are just treating it as a fast rigid mountain bike then disc are great. No rim wear, reliable powerful braking performance in all conditions – option to upgrade as more disc options become available.

You can ride with canti’s many do, but discs are vastly superior. I went from cantis to bb7.

Wheels are easy if you only want to run 35mm tyres, just fit 29er mountainbike ones.

We need to stop calling them CX bikes.

Not really. they’re all cx bikes just with slightly different focus. Same as not all mtbs are the same except I’d say that cx bikes are much less different across the spectrum of use ( how different are dh and xc race bikes afterall…)

Call them CX bikes makes searches harder on most sites (including this one) as there is usually a 3 character limit.

If only all Internet forums used phpBB, like the clever bods over at BikeRadar…

http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/search.php?keywords=CX&terms=all&author=&sc=1&sf=all&sr=posts&sk=t&sd=d&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search