Cyclocross tidbits: Tektro crown-mounted cable hanger
There’s been a lot of chatter the last couple years about cyclocross brakes, both at Bike Hugger and elsewhere on the inter webs. Fork shudder under braking is a hot topic. Prevailing opinion is that if you can’t quiet it with pad toe-in, you could try a linear-pull brake like the TRP CX9 or CX8.4. These brakes are a bit lacking in modulation (Byron’s main gripe). Another way to remedy shudder, as espoused by Lenard Zinn, is to move the cable stop off the typical position on the steerer, right above the headset, to a position on the fork crown. That’s great and all, but most high-end carbon cyclocross forks (Easton, Enve, etc) do not have provision for mounting a cable stop on the crown. However, the new Redline Conquest Carbon has a 1.5-1.125” tapered steerer carbon fork with a mounting hole for the cable stop.
I don’t have issues with fork shudder on the Redline that I ride, but then again I don’t have a really long steerer to flex under brake cable tension like the 6’6” Zinn has on any bike he rides. Another factor is the torsional rigidity of the fork blades that support the brake bosses, and the Redline is pretty stout in that respect. No, the primary reason I use the fork-mounted cable stop is that I can use a lower profile King Inset headset (as opposed to the stock FSA model with integrated cable hanger) and then slam the stem down. I ride primarily from the hoods, so I run bars pretty low. The TRP Adjustable Fork Crown Cable Hanger ($15) is a nice little piece. It’s a clean design with a smooth turning barrel adjuster. It comes with a mounting bolt, but on my Redline I had to come up with a longer bolt because the tapered steerer fork is too broad for the provided bolts.