The Avid BB7 road and BB5 road are both fine, they really do their job well. But they've been around for quite some time and have gone (mostly) without a challenger. At the North American Handmade Bicycle Show this year, Independent Fabrication came in with a Ti Factory Lightweight disc cyclocross bike to show sporting the Hayes CX-5 mated to Shimano levers.
Mounting up the CX-5 was only slightly more difficult than the BB7, which is to say pretty darn easy. Since you can adjust cable tension with the barrel adjuster as well as pad contact on the back side of the caliper all you really need to do is get them set up close initially and use the brake's own adjustments to dial them in.
Herein lies the major difference in setup between the BB7 and CX-5, the BB7 has a dial that's adjusted by hand where the CX-5 needs a 5mm allen. Certainly not the end of the world, but I think it's noteworthy.
The first item of note when riding the CX-5 is how smooth they are. The BB7 almost feels as though it has something dragging on the brake cable versus a Gore Sealed system for the CX-5. The power isn't better on one than the other once the pads are broken in, so that's a wash. I also wouldn't say modulation is any better with one than the other since they are both really quite nice.
My personal opinion is that the CX-5 looks a little nicer. The silver polished finish with etched logos looks great and will match any gruppo well. I think this brake on a Ti or stainless bike would be exceptional.
The stock BB7 I have in the store weighed in at 165g without hardware, the CX-5 came in at 190g without hardware. The BB7 uses CPS washers from Avid that the CX-5 doesn't use, but I'd guess the BB7 would still weigh in a hair less.
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