I have a similar set up on my Long Haul Trucker and the brakes have always felt solid, in that they do require a fair bit of hand force to really brake hard. Especially with high profile cantilevers, there is a practical limit to how much mechanical advantage you can eek from them, since you can only lower the straddle cable hanger so much before you start impinging on tire/fender/front rack clearance. However, I do like some of the other advantages of the low mechanical advantage setup--namely, that the brake pads don't have to be run super close to the rim and that even as brake pads wear and lever travel increases, I don't risk bottoming out my levers. I also have a fairly strong grip so the hand force required isn't problematic for me.
All other things being equal, switching to lower-profile cantilevers would increase the mechanical advantage, since they move the cable anchor points on the brake arms upwards, effectively lowering the straddle cable. The Tektro CR-710 <http://www.tektro-usa.com/category.php?productid=1149&catid=185&subcat=0>is similar to the CR-720 but with a lower profile (and with a cool straddle cable barrel adjuster). It does mean you have to run the brake pads closer to the rim, so make sure your rims are true. Since you have convertible pull levers, you could also switch to v-brakes, which provide tons of braking force for not much hand force, although sometimes they present clearance issues with certain tire/fender/rack configurations. Even the $20-30 v-brake options from Shimano or Avid work really well. On Friday, June 26, 2015 at 7:02:04 AM UTC-4, Alan Pickett wrote: > > So, before I ponied up for my Hillborne, I purchased a Surly Cross Check > about four years ago and completely "Rivendellized" it, with what at the > time amounted to a Riv Build Kit: Albatross bars, Sugino triple, bar-end > silver shifters, Tektro CR720 wide profile cantis and the Tektro Eclipse > linear pull levers. I never thought much about it, and the brakes have > performed over time, and the whole bike treated me well, even during the > Ragbrai of 2012, with over 100 degree temperatures most days. > > Now that I have my side pull hillborne with the lovely bigmouth side pulls > and the tektro mountain levers, I find that I really love the smooth, > almost buttery action of the levers and the lack of white knuckling > required to get modulation out of the brakes, and have started fiddling > with my old setup on the Surly. I've lowered the CR720's straddle wire > hanger as low as it will go, and have double checked to make sure that the > setting on the Eclipse levers is set for "non-linear pull" brakes (y'all > might remember that it had two settings for the cable nipple, depending on > the brakes used), but still have a sense of having to really clench the > levers to white-knuckle levels to bring the bike to rest. It's not that > they've ever failed, and I certainly become used to this set-up whenever I > return to the Surly, but do find that I like the action of the side pulls > and Mountain levers a lot more - it's like having power brakes vs > floor-stompers! > > So, is this simply a matter of mechanical advantage, and have I likely > exhausted my ability to get as much MA out of the cantis and levers, or is > there anything I can do to get more leverage? I remember in the description > of the CR720s they are described as having a "positiveness and crispness", > and maybe that is another way of saying less mechanical advantage, and > that's just how wide profile canto's behave? I did wonder if I could > replace the levers, since it appears that the Eclipse levers were actually > designed for linear pull brakes and maybe a poor choice? > > Lastly, bear with me. If there is an exhaustive post buried in the ROB, > feel free to point me in the direction. I also realize I may be confusing > some terminology above and using language imprecisely. I definitely don't > know my applied physics! > > Hope all are well this morning, > Alan > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
