limba

Final part 7

On some road descents, you can easily go much faster than on mountain bikes and you tend to hold the brakes for much longer (the tire size has nothing to do with overheating or not, speed, weight of bike+rider they have to stop, how long you stay on the brakes and how long you let them cool off between each braking does). They're trying to put smaller rotors, smaller calipers that can't deal too well with heat when discs for road should have better heat dissipation than most mountain bike... but they know they wont sell if they require roadies to use 203mm rotors and big heavy calipers... Anyway, mechanicals might be the best for a while still.

Hope I helped... Let me know if I can help out some more.

Part 6

Personally, If I needed to buy a 2013, I'd go with the Red/disc model, it's quite light, it's future-proof, it has great specs... Eventually, hydraulic discs will be available and they'll probably be great for pure cross (they'll be lighter, have better modulation and require less maintenance) but personally, I'd stick with the mechanicals since I use my cross bike as a road bike too and I'm not sure they've figured out how to prevent the brake fluid to overheat on the road...

Part 5

As for discs... well, Avid BB7 are heavier than rim-brakes (the bike will still be quite lighter than the Di2 model though) and they're quite low-end compared to good hydraulic discs but they're quite powerful. Modulation isn't as good as hydraulics but can be as good or better than rim brakes. I'm not sure what cables come with them but having good cables and housing goes a long way on how the brakes fell and perform (true for rim brakes too though). I'm a big fan of Gore RideOn sealed cables, they can last a few seasons without any need for adjustments/care so their higher prices is worth it IMO especially if you ride in nasty conditions (mud/rain/dust/snow). But SRAM/Avid and Gore are partners for cables (I think Gore even sold it's cable division to SRAM recently) so I'd guess the bike would come with some quality cables...

Part 4

As for the current range, it might come down to personnal preference. Personnally, I'm not very interested in electronic groups. They're heavier, costlier, if something goes wrong, it's not as easy to fix and figure out by yourself in no time like good old mechanic groups... Plus I find I have enough gadgets that need to be constantly charged in my life! I'm also not a fan of the ergonomy of Shimano's road levers. I do like SRAM Red levers a lot and I have the new generation Red (had the old one before on other bikes) and it works quite well, I like the Double-Tap shifting, the lever shapes and it's the lightest groupset on the market, it's proven to be quite durable and reliable so far too. If you're not sure, check the lever shapes and action on other road bikes to give you an idea, that's a very personal issue, depends of your hands size/shape and just how you like the shifting action.

Part 3

Mini-V have a lot more power but even less clearance. I went with these since I use my SuperX as a dirt road bike much more often than racing cross, and last race I did was the most muddy conditions I have ever seen and they weren't packing up much more than others with cantis so, I'm pretty happy with them. If I was setting mine just for racing though, I'd stick with cantis, I have never felt I needed more power while racing. But for a double-duty bike, mini-V are great, more polyvalent....

Part 2

I have used TRP EuroX alloy, EuroX carbon and now TRP CX8.4 mini-V brakes. Standard cantis provide a lot more clearance between the rim and the brake pads (very good if you race in muddy/wet conditions) but not much power, enough for pure CX racing but if you ride the bike as a road bike, they can be scary. They're usually the lightest options too. EuroX are wide-profiled cantis but some have the arms more pointed up (more or less 45°), these provide a bit more power but slightly less clearance. The Avid Shorty Ultimate can be set wide or high and are apparently pretty good for cantis, I haven't tried them myself though...

Sorry, just saw your message. I'm about 5'9" and my SuperX is a 52, but the right size depends of your inseam, arm length and so on more than height. I don't know if you have a road bike but shops that sell Cannondale must have some SuperSix or CAAD10 road bikes you could try for size? If so, the Cannondale geometries usually mean that you need a size smaller on their CX bikes compared to their road models. Like me, I was riding a SuperSix size 54.

Not over, message too long for a single reply....