Brakes

Despite chitter chatter about disc brakes taking over the cyclo-cross world, the vast majority of CX bikes, for the meantime, are equipped for cantilever brakes and a quick look at the fields of Flanders suggests that cantis are still king for the top-level racer. And at this price and in this colour these TRP RevoX Carbon Cantilever Brakes are for the serious racer.

Forza's cyclocross Cirrus Pro CS Cantilever brakes are really very very good cantilever brakes, stiff and powerful, probably the best I've tried.

Check to see they fit your bike first though. As I'll explain in detail below, I had issues on some bikes, and not others. Having said that, when they do fit, they are good, so we'll ignore that detail for now.

If you don't mind the fiddly set up, and the brakes actually line up with your bike and wheel rim combination these Forzas are a good buy.

The Genetic Metezoa road brake calipers are a single pivot, cam actuated brake, similar to those found in Sram's new 2013 Red group. The purported benefits of this design are twofold; the light weight of a single pivot brake coupled with the stopping power of a dual pivot.

Addressing the first of these claims, the Metezoa scores well with an all up weight of 243g per brake, which is actually lighter than either Shimano or Sram's top level brakes. And at £119.98 for the set, these brakes easily undercut those from the big players.

We've got on really well with these FSA SL-K dual pivot brakes over the past couple of months, finding them to offer an excellent level of power in dry and - especially - wet conditions.

These are the lightest brake calipers we’ve ever reviewed – by a long way – but they’re not the most powerful.

Light? How does 82g (for the rear) grab you? To put that it perspective, it’s about half the weight of Shimano’s top level Dura-Ace.

Tektro's 720 are the best cantilevers I've used with drop levers and would be choice upgrades for the lower profile original equipment (OEM) type often fitted to mid range production cross/multi sport and Audax bikes. That said their broad profile and sharp styling doesn't look out of place on older mountain and touring mounts either. Frankly, there's no reason to pay more unless addicted to exotica or desperate to shave every last gram.

Tektro's R538 long drop callipers are aimed at big-tyred tourers and town bikes and they're a good quality unit with a couple of nice touches. The bolts get rusty quickly, and the pads are a bit scratchy, but they're pretty well-made for the money.

Mmmm! And again… Mmmm! What we’ve got here, ladies and gentlemen, are the brand spanking new dual pivot offerings from TRP. They’re made from forged magnesium that’s then machined, along with titanium hardware and SwissStop Flash cartridge pads. And they hit the scales at – wait for it – 215g the pair, including fixings. For the weight-obsessed out there, that’s getting on for 80g lighter than Shimano’s top-end Dura-Ace callipers.

Complete with discrete Surly logo, the Braker is basically a stainless steel paperclip on steroids but the perfect replacement for chrome plated seat/cable hanger bolts commonly found on cyclo cross and touring bikes. It’s also a really elegant solution to the problem of running cantilevers on frames built for linear pulls. That said anyone with rudimentary metal working skills could fabricate a replica in minutes using scraps from the spares bin.

With their shapely magnesium arms and titanium hardware TRP’s Euro X are either the last word in lightweight bicycle jewellery or gratuitous extravagance-especially since the carbon variants work out £40 cheaper. Mere mortals with mid-range mounts are better served by aluminium patterns and pad upgrades but weight conscious, elite cross racers with deep pockets and a passion for exotica won’t be disappointed.