Judder Judder, how can I stop the front juddering under braking?

[flyingelephant]

My cross bike is almost uncontrolable under front wheel braking. Toed in the front brakes, cleaned the rim, changed to frog legs, but still, I can hardly touch the brakes without loosing it. Help! How many other tricks are there to stop the juddering?

 

[RedBike]

Tighten the headset?

 

[dan_bo]

new fork?

 

[RedBike]

You could also try changing the length of the straddle wire. No idea why this helps but it seems to.

 

[bonk man]

Yeh, check the headset, my Van Nicholas was all over the place and juddery with a slightly lose headset.

 

[kyuss]

What wheels are you using? I had a similar problem on my old carbon frame when using Xero XCR-1. I could visibly see the fork vibrating back and forward under braking. Put my old mavics on and the problem disappeared.

 

[Miz]

What kind of cable hanger are you using ?

I experienced very bad judder with my carbon forks when I used a headset/steerer tube spacer mounted one.

Almost no/minimal judder since I changed the cable hanger to one that mounts at the fork crown.

I believe it's something to do with the length of the cable (i.e. too much) between the hanger and the straddle cable and/or where the straddle cable is fixed to the canti arms.
When the forks flex, the movement between these points changes and amplifies the braking - on/off effect, causing major judder.

I bought the crown mounted cable hanger at my lbs (brand is KF)
It's like a 6cm stalk that bolts through a hole on the centre of the fork crown (where the fork legs meet in the middle / where a road bike caliper brakes are bolted through).

Also, do all the tips mentioned above;-
Ensure headset is not lose.
Brakes shoes and rims are clean/not overly worn or rough and the brake shoes are toed in correctly.

 

[Miz]

Hello again
Just looked up where I got the fork crown cable hanger advice from and thought I'd post the link on here for anyone who may be interested.

http://www.forum.3peakscyclocross.org.uk/forum_posts.asp?TID=299&KW=judder&PN=0&TPN=1

 

[Pottsy]

Heard a lot of this before about Specialized TriCross's. Is it one of these? If so it might be worth a search through the forum archives.

 

[New Horizon]

Carbon forks + cantilever brakes seems to lead to varying degrees of brake judder, as many Specialized Tricross owners found, and as I have found on my Van Nicholas. Its not as though manufacturers are not aware of this problem, yet they keep selling a potentially lethal combination. When it happens its extremely rapid and very frightening and I can see my carbon fork wobbling like a jelly. The accepted damage limitation measures seem to be as mentioned above ie get a fork crown cable hanger (Kona KF from dotbike in UK) and move to soft pads, ideally salmon Kool Stop MTB Pad V-type (also from dotbike). I'm in the process of doing just this so will report back when done.

 

[mabeleliza]

Hi, new to forum so excuse me if I dont keep to any protocols that may exist.

Interested to know if any of the above solved the original problem? Have a Specialized Tri-Cross and having just changed to a new pair of Shimano R550 Cantis am having the same problem.

Thanks,

 

[Dave5N]

Not convinced about the carbon fork explanation. We have two cross bikes with these no probs, as do most riders these days.

Check the headset, but also check the canti arms are mounted correctly and the wheel cones aren't loose.

TBH you'd have to see it to diagnose it, hard to find the right cause over the internet.

 

[jpembroke]

Hi, new to forum so excuse me if I dont keep to any protocols that may exist.

Interested to know if any of the above solved the original problem? Have a Specialized Tri-Cross and having just changed to a new pair of Shimano R550 Cantis am having the same problem.

Thanks,

The Tricross is a bit of a notorious judderer. Google it for more info. Consensus of opinion seems to point to the forks as the culprit.

I too have a juddering issue on my 'cross bike. I recently changed my brakes from low profile Tektro Oryx to wide profile Tektro 520s. This has seen a marked improvement in terms of the juddering but I'm not sure if the stopping power is as good now. Anyway, changing to wide profile brakes does seem to improve things so may be worth a go. Warning though, there is a bit of an art to setting them up, especially those with peg mounted brake block e.g. Empella Frogglegs.

 

[RedBike]

I've got Specialised 'fat' carbon fork to my new Paul Milnes cross bike. It juddered like mad the first time I took it out.

Tightening the headset, setting the brakes to toe-in etc didn't do anything but having the straddle wire really long worked a treat.

 

[RedBike]

Forget all about the lack of 'judder'. They judder terribly in the wet!