My canondale CX bike has the worst fork judder, even a slow speeds feels lethal so much so that I aim not to use front brake – fork flexes a massive amount. Bike is still fairly new and local shop tried to fix (putting massive toe-in on the short arm canti brakes) – it worked, a bit, but is getting worse again. Quick qoogle suggests that the cable hanger in steerer does not help as the tension between fork and hanger when braking exagerates the flex of the carbon fork, solution seems to be a fork mounted hanger (no go due to large steerer on the ‘dale – bolt not long enough) or a set of mini-Vs (cable direct into Vs so not tension issues).

Anyone had this problem and did mini Vs sort it? Looking at a set of tektro Vs, seem to be a few models – dont want to spend if these wont work though… some say that pads need to be very, very close to wheel in order to work with 105 STI brakes.

Help, just want to be able to use the front brake…doesn’t seem to be too unreasonable on a 1300 quid bike!!!

um…complain to cannondale? they r ment to make very high quality bikes…this shouldnt be acceptable?

clean the rims, clean the brake pads and check the toe in of the pads

it will be one of the 3

I think this problem may have been relevant to almost every other bike that uses a canti, carbon fork and steerer mounted cable hanger!!! the other big one that starts with an ‘s’ seem to have changed to mini-vs on their best selling CX bike!!!

Could be a wee email to cannondale as you have a point, shouldnt really have to spend money, after all it is a complete bike, not an ill planned custom build.

rims always clean, pads checked and even filed a bit to roughen and remove any contamination and finally toe in adjusted by me (used to work as a bike mechanic) and also fettled by LBS who have a very good mechanic.

Must be the set up.

raise the straddle-hanger

sorry I will shut the fug up 😳

I tried

There is a limit to how much you can raise the hanger without the pads jamming the rim… its a standard shimano style set up (with cable outer at one side to keep it around 45 degree angle).

junk the Shimano gubbins and put something like these straddle-yolks on with a new straddle wire

Could be worth a try.

Going to get LBS to speak to cannondale about sorting this though – would rather not start spending out on ‘fixing’ what should be a brilliant off the shelf bike.

PS. Truth be told, it is a really good bike in all other areas and if braking is sorted it will be perfect!

I’ve had the problem before, using tektro brakes, on a new 7.1 rim, with a flexy fork, if it grabs, then it flexs, then starts to judder, larger pads helped my problem, i changed brand too, found some harder pad inserts helped.

Had the same problem,on a Focus- changed the cheapy headset for something decent, as it seemed to be that which was ‘flexing’ when the brake was applied. Cured it, but Im now rocking a set of white frogglegs- for the pimp factor & cos the shimano cantis always felt a bit crap compared with mates’ Froggs

moving the straddle up will cure it as will using a crown mounted cable hanger instead of the headset mounted one. the judder is caused by the distance between the straddle and cable stop, for some reason the bigger the distance the more judder you seem to get.

I use mini Vs on my Tricross. They do need to be set up very close to the rim. I’ve also tried frogleg style brakes and more conventional cantilevers.

The froglegs gave loads of rim clearance but just didn’t feel as though I could get the stopping power I wanted. The conventional cantilever gave less rim clearance and more power but still not great. The mini Vs give minimal clearance but great power. So much power in fact that some of the feel is lost. It’s not a startling set of results, it’s a simple study in mecanical advantage.

As for the judder, I did hear a tale of someone who clamped an old front mech onto the exposed brake cable to prove it was a resonance issue (which it was in that case). Maybe finding a cable stop with a greater drop might be enough.

I’m not sure why you couldn’t mount a fork hanger on the bike. You say the bolts not long enough. Couldn’t you just get a longer bolt? (sorry, not overly familiar with the cx dale front end).

I had the same problem on my jake the snake, fitted this fork mounted cable hanger and judder gone. Of course your forks may not have a hole for fitting this.

Mine juddered to, on an sworks and both my kinesis pro 3 and 5. I now use v brakes with a travel agent thing and its fine. With mini v i could not unclip the quick release as there was to little clearance between the pad and rim which also made my brakes rub when sprinting or cornering.
You could try to TOE OUT the pads this did make it better. And as above try playing with the length of inner cable that is visible.
There is an interesting thread on weight weenies about this try searching for it.
Hope this helps
Ben

try here
http://weightweenies.starbike.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=15006&hilit=brake+judder&start=30

I had the legendary Tricross judder. Solved it. I ditched the mini v’s and fitted old ish Lx cantis. got a nice cheap cable stop that sits under my stem spacers. cheapo but long brake blocks. Easy to set up. I use the little yellow wedge that came with some old Magura Julie brakes to set some toe in. Judder gone. Braking at least as good as the V’s. Maybe I would like a touch more wooden-ness as I don’t like lots of lever travel but that comes at the expense of power so I have a compromise that gives 9/10 braking and 9/10 feel. Easily as good as the 105 sidepulls on the road bike. I use Cane Creek suicide levers and old Dia Compe manin levers.
I reckon the OP will have to play as there are so many options.
I much prefer setting up cantis as it’s so much easier.

i’ve got an s works tricross with frogsleggs, no issues at all. just take the time to set your brakes correctly.

think i’d be back to shop if a new bike – isn’t Cannondale one of the co’s that doesn’t allow mailorder/internet sales?

on my scratty made up fugly with frogglegs got so much judder my mate nearly wet himself
spent a lot of time getting the gap each side pad to wheel exactly same and this sorted it – with froggleg cables this is all adjustable

To start with ditch the stupid shimano spring straddle cable thing as they’ve never worked and just buy a straddle hanger & straddle cable as JoB said. That’s how I’ve got both my cx ikes set up, although I am tempted by the Frogglegs/ Tektro version.

I had this issue with an Easton carbon fork. I was told my a bike company representative that as far as Easton were concerned, it was not an issue with the fork, because as you use the brakes harder on the road than you would if in a cyclocross race, then you are using the forks beyond what they have been designed for and are therefore using them outside of their intended purpose!!

If that is the case, then as far as I see it, shops should not be selling cyclocross bikes unless you are intending to use them for cyclocross racing only.

But as shown above, there are ways to get round the judder, luckily.

What Blackdog said.

Put it with cannondale via my LBS – see what they say! if I have no luck will look at the new straddle wire hanger, then tektro’s if all else fails.

Cheers for the advice.

Just a thought. My singlecross is an XS so there is bugger all cable . Only jst have room between straddle wire and hanger. I use a little alloy straddle thingy that has 2 small allen keys to lock it central on the straddle wire

following this thread I managed to grab some as new, used Tektro 720s off eBay for £30. Just fitted them to the pompino.

Significantly better feel than the old on-ones. more power and modulation. Feel sharper too. Now I hope I can freewheel down the hill and brake at the bottom without fear of running straight across the junction…previously I would have to drag the brakes all the way down or I would never stop in time… 🙂

I too have the same issue on a Spesh Carbon fork as well with Avid Shortys …might just swap the fork out for a Steel model as the judder is shocking .

stick with carbon but get one of the doobry things that shortens the effective cable length to the forks.

It's the carbon forks flexing that casues the problems as it pulss the long run of cable and the brakes effectively pulse on and off all the time.

spesh have chanegd the cable routing on newwer models I think for this reason.

just got one of those crown mounted cable stops from my LBS, Fishers do them although we only found that out as the rep was in the shop

the supplied bolt will not fit a tricross fork though, i've ordered some M5x60 Allen head bolts that will hopefully do so

i've had to order 4 of them so if anybody wants one let me know

Have you tried different pads?

I had trouble with the on-one cantis on my pompino, no confidence in them at all, swapped them for a pair of Shimano DXs, a bit better but while they stopped me they juddered badly, have replaced the pads now (jagwire) and they are fantastic, no judder, nice power and modulation.

Cured mine, and actually gave me the ability to stop

which was nice

This is my first post here it's a shame it has to be about this problem! I've recently got a brand new litespeed cx with ea90 forks and froglegs. The bike was built on a budget with a cheap ritchey headset and fsa wheels. I get shudder at low speeds and there is no progressive braking. As I mainly use the bike for commmuting and club runs I am gooing to ask my lbs (a very very good one IMHO) if mini-vks together with perhaps a Chris king would sort the problem out. I'll post back here when I have found a solution the works.

Happy trails!

Stoner – Now I hope I can freewheel down the hill and brake at the bottom without fear of running straight across the junction…previously I would have to drag the brakes all the way down or I would never stop in time…

exactly how i feel using frogleggs (sp) with planet x carbon fork on an old trek frame – only plus point about hard braking is that on one ride as i shivered and shaked a wet hairpin my mate rode off the road laughing

can get rid of the vibration by carefully and regularly adjusting the length of straddle cables so pads are exactly equispaced to rim – no fit and forget – fair enough – designed for cx racing and i guess anyone racing would set up every race

personally it means am really looking forward to increaed availabilty cx style disc brake frame/sti's with relaxation in racing code – mini v's may work ok but really i would prefer discs and drops so can ride a nice mix of road and track edit track = trail 2nd edit just realised this is 1 yr old post

Info here
and here

I had the same problem to a lesser extent on my new kinesis crosslight, I took it to my LBS and they reseated my headset. This worked a treat. I still have some judder but only an acceptable/expected amount.

I personally couldnt tell that there was anything wrong the the headset fitment.

Thanks for your informative answers and those articles are Great, colnagokid. Sorry to activate an old post with this one. I'll try shortening the pads first!

btw this is my front end setup

I would shorten the hanger to yoke cable length, before you start messing with the pads, have the straddle cable longer, and the brake cable shorter. HTH

thanks colnago that helped somewhat! cheers for the advice.

another thx to colnago for the links – interesting reading