Cyclocross - Getting a new fork on my '07 Tricross

My new tricross sport does the same fork shudder. I will have the LBS check the toe-in, and go from there. Needs some rear derailleur work too. Would't mind a different brake set up though.

whaa mine too used to ride in the same area every weekend and thought it was the road but now i use it every day for work and the front fork has a fit every time i touch the front brakes seems a shame to pay for two brakes and can only use one

Noelie,
Specialzed have to do something about this for you mate. They will ship a mini v-brake to your local Spesh dealer and it will all be covered by warranty. This is what they are doing for me through my dealer in Belfast.

Get on the blower to them!

i toed in the brake pads as recommended here and it worked this site is class .

Toe in worked for a bit, now shudder is back. I'm a newbie biker, so I don't know how/if my LBS will work with me with this. Should I contact Specialized directly, or have my LBS do the legwork? Big Hoddy, they replaced your front canti's with a mini-v brake set? I would love to have that.

Almost sounds like it's eventually going to turn into a safety recall issue to me. Someone's going to brake hard (cuz they have to!), start shuddering violently, and the fork is going to snap in half at the crown right off the bike. :eek:

I would be very suprised if the fork breaks. It may shudder, but break????

The whole point of the tricross is that is gives and absorbs crappy terrain w/o using suspension. And it does an amazing job of it. The shudder basically comes from a combination of brakes that can flex on the posts, a long cable from the stem, and forks that are _designed_ to flex. This leads to harmonic feedback.

I'd try a cable mount with a deeper drop. but I've also heard reports (on this forum) that Tektro BMX mini-v brakes work great and eliminate the shudder (and without "travelers" (leverage adapters)).

I've done neither to mine. I just ride it (and let it shudder sometimes).

Well, I just picked up a new Tricross Sport (XXL 61cm, I'm 6-3 220) and I can report that I have the "shudder" too. It is very hard to reproduce, the two times I had it appeared at very low speed, once was kinda bad and once was REALLY bad (like "holy **** that's it alright!"). :eek: At the same time, I rode down some pretty big hills (High Park Toronto) (I'm not a big speed demon, anything over 40 or 50 kmh and I goose the brakes on downhills to scrub speed), and I had no problems at all. So if this is how bad it's going to be I can live with it easily. I noted it seemed to happen with my hands on the hoods.

If it shuddered badly at 50kmh then that would be extremely scary IMHO. Has anyone had that happen?

Before buying this bike, I'd read this forum... people reporting everything from 'I think this bike is unrideable' to 'no big deal'.... I thought that if the bike was perceived as unrideable by most people they wouldn't be selling so many of them, and I hammered the brakes in the test ride but didn't have any problems, so I went for it.

This problem has existed for two years. It hasn't killed anyone yet (through fork failure)... hopefully I won't be the first and i'll get the safety recall in plenty of time :twitchy:. If it only happens at low speed, well a fork failure at 5kmh is no big deal. I mean, this bike is meant to jump stumps... is some vibration gonna do it in?

edit: oh and by the way I should mention that other than this I LOVE the bike!!!!!!! Looks like a million bucks and rides (for this newbie) like a dream. That carbon fork eats rough pavement for breakfast.

edit: for the benefit of posterity I should note that the problem quickly worsened a lot... to the point where riding was unsafe. The shudder actually knocks the brakes out of adjustment somehow (it seems to me) and things got ugly. An adjustment alleviated but did not cure the problem. Specialized (it turns out) now ships the bike with V-brakes as standard equipment (in fact this is also true of the higher end models as well), and I shall have them switch me over to mini Vs via warranty in a couple of days. Will report on my findings.

In my opinion, it's the adjustment on the front brakes. I have two Tricross's and they don't do this. Either you adjust them till it doesn't do it or have the shop do it. Either way, it's not right the way it is. It shouldn't do this.

I bought my 07 Tricross Sport new about 2.5 months ago at the Ex. bike show.

Similarly, I've controlled the speed of my decent down the steep hills of High Park, as I don't like to go much over 40km/hr. either. I've only clocked about 700km on the bike, but so far I have been fortunate enough to have never experienced any shutter when breaking at either high or low speeds.

This maybe slightly off topic but...
On a decent the bikes front wheel shifts below the horizontal plain, while the back wheel goes above it and so it seems logical that the weight load on the bike shifts more to the front. In order to offset this shift in weight, I tend to instinctively slide my weight to the back of the saddle. This maneuver puts a greater portion of your weight back onto the back wheel, making the bike more stable should you happen to put too much pressure on the front brake - which usually results in less stability and worse case maybe even flipping over.

One way or another your forks should not shutter but thought I'd mention this maneuver in case it helps reduce shutter should the problem occur suddenly in a dangerous high speed decent.

As far as I know nothing has been modified on my Tricross Sport presale by LBS. Now, my bike is a medium size 54cm and apparently the problem tends to be a characteristic of the larger frames only.

Hope you get your issue resolved.

I had this problem on my XL '07 Tricross Sport and had a mini v-brake with noodle fitted under warranty. The lack of any judder in the last 6 months tells me the problem is completely eradicated. If anything the mini-v embarasses the stock canti on the back in terms of braking power and as a result I use my brakes the way I do on my Commencal Meta when I hit the steeps... back brake for control, plus front for hard stops.

I have a 2009 Tricross Sport, Specialized replaced the center-pull cantilever with v-brakes