Valpo Hawkeye

My Tricross would shake fairly seriously when using the front brake. The mechanic at my LBS said it has a bad fork and he would order me one under warranty. Well, they didn't have one. However, my boss is a life-long friend of the LBS owner, so the way it worked out is that I have a S-series fork and headset on the way . It won't match as I have a green tricross sport, but hey, can't argue with the upgrade.

dzinehaus

lucky you, hook a brother up!

what made you decide to get a tricross over a crosscheck or poprad or romulus or JTS etc. ?

I find the tricross look a lil not for me, kinda cool looking but not my style and i don't see the functionality in its design.

Valpo Hawkeye

I bought the bike on a recommendation from my boss (an avid rider and triathlete) whom I trust and the reviews that I read online. Since I'm a total newbie to bikes I basically took my LBS's word for a lot of things. However, I doubt that they'd try and screw me because I do work for them (plumbing, HVAC). Anyway, I've been riding the bike for a couple of weeks now and I love it. I'd always been on mountain bikes, cheaper ones at that. The Tricross fits like a glove, at least as far as I know, is very responsive and comfortable. I've gotten it up over 30mph a few times (hill). Overall, I'm very happy with the bike.

dzinehaus

sounds cool man. always good to have hookups like that.

mkington

I've got that issue with my tricross. It's still under warrenty too I think. All a friend of mine got was different pads. The problem stems from breaks which are two powerful for the fork (so they reckon). I think I'll take it back to the shop. Although I'm about to upgrade the groupset, perhaps I should get this fixed before I do that.

michael_g

I've also got a Tricross sport. It's forks judder horribly in certain circumstances.

I took the bike back to Evans Cycles where I bought it, and asked what the problem was. The mechanic wandered off for a while and when he came back he explained he'd just spoken to someone at Specialized and that they said they were receiving several reports of problems on this bike, particularly in the XL frame size. The problem is apparently that the brakes are too powerful for the forks, and that the suggested fix is to replace the cantilever brake system with V-brakes.

However, I feel that this is wide of the mark, as the judder can occur under light braking, so you begin to wonder exactly how much braking force Specialized would like to leave you with so that it goes away (perhaps just the rear brake then .

I've fitted replacement brake pads and adjusted the toe-in correctly using shims on the leading end of the brake pad. I hoped that a harder compound would not let the brakes bind and grab the rim, but the problem's persisted. I have found, though that my body position makes a difference to how bad the judder is. Take more weight on the pedals and off the bars and the judder is less severe, absent even, than if you take your weight on the bars. Anecdotal evidence, perhaps, but I'd be interested to find out if this works for other people too.

It's not ideal, in fact it's possibly dangerous and Speicalized should be cautious to consider whether people are going to get injured when a set of forks (inevitably) fail. De-powering the brakes isn't really a consideration - if that is their only solution they can buy the bike off me and I'll get something that isn't emasculated.

Cheers

Michael

mkington

I've just followed it up the bike shop and they're going to swap the break out for a Deore V Break. They also mentioned something about changing the wheel to make the break feel less plush, I don't see what the wheel has to do with it but there you go.

Valpo Hawkeye

I agree that it happens at low speed as well as higher speeds. The problem is that your weight shifts forward when you brake, making it difficult to keep weight over the pedals, especially in emergency braking.

I hope this doesn't suck in the end. The problem is that there is no other Specialized that will do what I want/need, so I couldn't swap the bike out, even in if the LBS would agree to it.

flipped4bikes

A couple of comments: I have a '06 Tricross Comp and love it so far. I haven't had this issue or created a circumstance where I felt the fork would fail. Is this both '06 and '07 models? Could it be grabby brakes? I'm sure not how the Zertz inserts on the fork are placed, but I did notice them right at the brake bosses, correct? Could it be not the fork itself but the how the Zertz were designed into it?

If indeed there is to be a fork failure, wouldn't it be more likely while ride over rough terrain (big bumps, potholes) then braking?

Not disputing your issues, but trying to throw out some ideas.

Valpo Hawkeye

Truthfully, I have no idea. I'm taking the word of the mechanic at my LBS. He's been doing it for 15 years, so he definitely knows more than me. I suppose the proof will be in the pudding when I get my new fork installed. It should have come in today, so I hope to take my bike in tomorrow and get it back on Friday. We'll see.

flipped4bikes

Good luck! A fork failure could be quite a nasty thing...

Valpo Hawkeye

Frick! I got my new fork installed today. It turns out they were able to get a fork for the black tricross, so I didn't get the S-Works fork. Well, I took the bike out tonight for some errands, and it does the exact same thing! I'm probably in trouble here. It appears to me that this is a design flaw and will be the same no matter what we do. As I've stated, there's no other Specialized that I want. I don't know if the LBS will take the bike back.

Suggestions?

mkington

Well as I say, they're fitting a different break to mine, that'll happen on the 6th July so I'll let you know how that goes.

reppans

Keep toe-ing the brake shoes in until it stops...

I have a Tricross Comp Triple and front didn't shake or judder, as I've heard some reports on, but she squealed like a stuck pig. Keep toe-ing the brake until it stopped. Works fine, although I'm probably giving up a bit in braking performance.

moki

It's pretty disheartening to see Specialized spec such a crap. Squeaky, shuddering brakes make the whole riding experience so much less fun, not to mention more dangerous.

To the OP - if your LBS isn't able to set up your brakes so that they don't squeal or shudder, you could ask them to give you different pads. If that doesn't fix it, you could see if they'll sell you a different fork at cost. Retail price on carbon cross forks is pretty brutal, but the shop cost shouldn't be so bad. Or, if they won't there's always the Nashbar carbon fork, or Surly steel forks, which might be better, and are way cheaper than Reynolds, Alpha Q, etc. If you end up buying a different fork, you could always sell the other one to offset the cost.

flipped4bikes

Not sure what's going on here. I've had ZERO brake issues with my fork. The brake spec for the Sport is different than the Comp. Any other Sport riders have this issue? Maybe crappy rims?

mkington

I've got a sport, Michael_g has a sport also. Flipped, did you mean any other comp riders have this issue?

bsyptak

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. Carbon is only going to give so much. Looks like they spec'd a lighter fork at the expense of rigidity. Bad idea on a carbon fork. There's a reason why they're all beefy. V-brakes on a cross bike? Without a travel agent? Why, just to remove some power from the brake? Yuck. I smell class action lawsuit after the first accident.

Same thing happens on my cross bike, but luckily it's a steel fork. I doubt it will snap in half. I've mitigated it slightly by putting less grippy pads on it, as well as relying on the rear brake for probably 70% of braking power. Still there, but not a big deal to me.

flipped4bikes

Yes and no. Just trying to find the common variable. I have an '06 Comp, but no issues with my bike at all. From what I can figure, all Sports and Comps whether '06 or '07 have the same fork design. However the brakes are spec'd differently. Not sure that's the issue. It could be the particular production run of the forks. Toe-in?

Valpo Hawkeye

Mechanic at LBS spoke with Specialized. I now have a new '06 S-works fork on the way. I'm not sure what I'll do, though. I may just tell them forget it, give me an Allez instead. This is a bit ridiculous. Only problem is that I really like the bike, this issue aside. Argh!

mkington

Right, gotcha, what about the wheel, you have different rims on a comp too. The guy at my shop said he'd need to fit a new front wheel (I doubt he'll reuse the hub tbh)

From what I've read elsewhere on the web, the Avid Shorty 4s are supposed to be very squealy (I think reppans mentioned that) with people preferring the Tektros, which is somewhat of Ironic. Are your breaks at all squeaky?

We'll see what the deore V break does when they fit it.

hamr22

Don't settle for a bike that isn't perfect. My LBS took back a bike from me once without any beef. Those tricross forks do look funky.

flipped4bikes

The '06 Comp has the Shimano BR550 cantis. Pretty impressed at how powerful they are for cantis hooked up to brifters.

As for the v-brakes, are they installing adapters so the brifters can pull more cable the v-brakes require? Why the new front wheel?

Little Leo

Can you take a pic or that set up please? I think it might look cool.

Maybe you should try a different fork all together? Hope you get it fixed!

Valpo Hawkeye

Yeah, but you also have a grown man with eye makeup as your avatar! Seriously, though, I'll get some pics when I get the fork. They said two weeks. Specialized was supposed to e-mail me yesterday to let me know if they could take one off the line before it's painted red so that I would have a black one, but they still haven't e-mailed me as the LBS promised.