I just finished building up my winter bike, a Ridley Crosswind, here is a brief spec list:

2005 Ridley Crosswind 54cm
FSA Carbon Pro Elite crank - 34/50
10 speed Ultegra shifters and rear derailleur
FSA compact front derailleur
12-25 Dura Ace cassette
DA 10 speed chain
Shimano Dura Ace 7800 wheels
Avid Shorty 6 brakes
FSA K-force Lite (yah, right) seatpost
Selle Italia SLR saddle
Conti GP3000 tires
Ritchey WCS alloy handlebar
Thomson X2 stem
Zipp skewers

Total weight 18.09 lbs (sorry, no breakdown as I was in a rush to get it built).

I took it out for a short test ride and a couple km into the ride I came to the first place I actually needed the brakes (I had tried them already to experience the squealing), a wet corner with a stop sign. Having done the corner many times on my CR1 I was fairly relaxed and approached it as normal ... only to have the front brake start chattering and then the front wheel locked up briefly and down I went. A little road rash and some scratches to the right shifter, bar tape, rear derailleur and right pedal and all was good. The girl riding by in the other direction was suitably impressed.

I don't race and only wanted a winter bike so as not to abuse the Scott. My question is this, will these brakes wear in with time and be more reliable and not chatter and lock up. I did toe them in. I don't want to take the time to do it and find them to always inspire no confidence.

What is a good alternative to them that won't have me riding in fear of having to apply the brakes. Are cross brakes just a bad idea for road riding?

Of course, I could always strip the Crosswind and built up my Six13. Anybody got any advice or suggestions. Thanks in advance.

Richard

If you set them up properly, cantis are plenty strong for general road riding. I've been doing all my road training on my cross bike for the last 6 months.

There have been lots of reports of chattering on Avids, mine have been pretty quiet, but every now and then there is some chatter.

Checked RoadBikeReview forum and there is lots of info there about the Avid fork chatter. Sheldon Brown also gives a good explanation of the "slip/grab" that causes squealing. In my case one of the grabs was enough to cause me to lose traction on the rear tire. Of course, I deserved to go down for being so careless and not really testing out the braking on a dry straight road. Obviously it made no sense to wait until a wet corner. Regardless, the problem was just as bad for the rest of the ride.

As for a fix, I shortened the pole length by switching the washers around but there was no way to get the play out of the canti-stud, even at maximum torque there is a bit of slop in the Avid's. I set up the pads again and will next try some Kool Stop salmom pads. After that, either a new canti-brake or dig out the Six13 frame. I really like the cable routing on the Crosswind though as it doesn't get as dirty on the wet roads.

Just a quick follw-up (for anyone also having problems with Avid Shorty brakes). I adjusted the Avids but the front brake still chattered and wanted to lock up without warning. I wasn't able to get any KoolStop salmon pads to try out so I put on some Shimano LX canti brakes instead. The LX canti's do not chatter and my first impression is that they have pretty good feel/control, almost to the level of regular road brakes. The Shorty's might indeed work well on some bikes, but not on this one.