I’m fairly new to the world of rim brakes, so I’m not sure what’s best.
It’s not helped by most sellers not giving the length of the pad in the description. Mine are 70mm.

What’s good ?

edit;
Plain aluminium rims. None of your fancy ceramics here.

Just bumping this.
I could do with ordering them this afternoon if I knew what to order.

I like Kool Stop Salmon pads, the’re good all-rounders, and kind on rims.

Always used Swissstop ones on the CX and road bikes. Very good but quite expensive.

I’ve worked out where I was going wrong.
I was thinking CX bike = road bike rim brake pads and MTB = disc brake pads.

I should have worked out that CX bike = old style MTB rim brake pads.
I didn’t realise they were 72mm either. That’ll explain why nothing turned up when searching for “70mm pads”. 😳

Any opinions on the basic Shimano ones at £4 ?
Is it worth spending more for KoolStop, SwissStop etc. ?

Iswear by Koolstop rim pads. The dual compound have much better stopping power than manufacturers own IMHO. You might prefer the salmon wet weather pads for CX work

I bought some Ashima pads recently for my Tektro Mini-Vs and they’ve transformed the bike. I was using the stock Tektro pads before which slowed me down gradually, now I can actually stop.
I think they’ll be compatible with cantis too??

I got them here:
Ashima pads from Wiggle

Is it worth spending more for KoolStop, SwissStop etc. ?

Yes. Softer compound gives much better performance. Either salmon for best stopping or dual for better stopping and longer life.

Swissstop GHP2 aka green pads. Fantastic stopping in wet or dry on alloy brake tracks

BBB BBS-06 VeeStop V-Brake Pads

£4 for 4 pads. Not noticed any difference in performance or durability over more expense brands (eg. koolstop)