>I've had 3 Tricross's and have yet to have issues with the brakes.

Heh, two here and lots of problems with brakes! First one had v-brakes with too much cable pull (hence insufficient pad clearance). Had them swapped for cantis - worked ok. Until it hit a car, replaced with disk brake. Second one I fiddled with a bit until I eventually broke the front cable yoke. Still fiddling...

The real problem I'm having is that my LBS doesn't appear to understand/respect cantilevers. When my 12 month service contract runs out I'll go somewhere else. I tell them that I need more mechanical advantage and it's very hard to stop, and they tell me:
1) Cantilever brakes don't work very well.
2) The "safety levers" (he means the interrupteur/cross levers) are only meant to "slow the bike down", not "stop it". (WTF? That distinction doesn't even make sense. All brakes slow, then stop...)
3) The brakes don't meet the Australian standard.
4) Cyclocross brakes aren't intended for riding down steep hills. (Wtf...)
5) That I could improve braking performance by swapping out the Tektro CR720s for "Shimano brakes". ???
6) That they set the brakes up "nice and aggressive" (read, low mechanical advantage) and that that's as good as they get.

The real problem is that they mostly service disk brakes and calipers and have gotten into a lazy routine of recommending that people upgrade cantis to disk.

(Whoops, where did that LBS rant come from...)

Steve