I've got a boardman which is really nice but the brakes are rubbish. Whats the option for upgrading? anybody got any advice?

Before you ditch them, fiddle with the way you've got them set up. CX brakes become a lot more powerful if you run the straddle wire lower, even though they start feeling spongier at the lever.

love my tektro CR720s

yeah i thought the set up was criticle, but i've had huge problems with squeeling, which after repeated atempts to cure i'm sure does comes and goes as it feels. toe'd in, not toe'd in doesn't seem to make much difference.

Any products to look out for?

Cantis are very set-up sensitive (don't know how old you are!). There have been threads on here before with helpful details, but my tips are:

Get the pad contact angle just right – hitting the rim toe first but otherwise flat and straight.

Remove the cantis and grease the bosses. Frequently. Adjust spring tension in each canti as low as possible.

Set the straddle wide to get a 90 deg angle to the canti arm.

Clean and lube cables frequently.

Check cable routing and shorten/straighten outers if you can, fit new inners.

Brake lever pivot should be lubed well too (makes a surprising difference).

On top of that, look further ahead and squeeze harder!

Are the pads in metal holders, rather than all in ones?

Get the softest pads you can buy.

Degrease and clean the rims (be careful with tyres).

I'd second Tektro 720 / 520s

i'm off an age that remembers cantis well, in fact i think i looked a little through rose tinted glasses when i looked at them before i bought the bike! gues i'm just too used to my disc brakes on my mtb! 🙄

It's worth pointing out that the brake blocks that come with most new brakes (inlcuding the Tektro 720s) are pretty crap – they're hard and don't provide a lot of power.

Try replacing the existing pads with some aftermarket ones – CRC are selling Clarks ones pretty cheap (£4 per end with a spare set of pads included).

Put Mini-V's on mine, pretty good now!!!

All the judder from the cantilever brakes has gone!!

Sorry for the egg sucking advice then Neil! I still remember what a revelation v brakes were. It is possible to get cantis up to a reasonable level though. At least as good as road brakes, which on a thin tyre is good enough.

might try changing the pads as clubber says, they slow down ok but don't stop well, and the squeeking does my nut in 🙄

I'll persist with set up

This is a mystery to me neil. I'm running Frogglegs and Avids and both work very very well, so I assume there must be a knack.
I find making the adjustments with the tyres off helps you see what exactly is going on

I gave up with canti's, tried froggsleggs and it improved but you're right, in comparison to mountain bike disks they are all a bit naff… altho some people seem to worship frogsleggs. so I then got a project2 CX fork and put on an avid mechanical disk at the front. I dont have disk mounts for the back, so bought a 'travel agent' device which allows me to fit full size Vees on the back and still use the road brake levers… and now the bike more or less stops when I want it to.

The problem with setting up cantis is the way you angle the shoe/pad.
Were Shimano V's on paralelograms?? or something so the pads remained horizontal.
Anyway canti's don't do that, everything is at a jaunty angle. I think that must be the key.