Michael: Thanks for sharing your experiences. I plan to try a high profile canti set-up on my wife's Atlantis as a first measure. Hopefully that will replicate the braking performance of her old bike. If not, I'll look into V-brakes & new levers, but that probably has its own learning curve.
dougP On Aug 30, 2:53 pm, Michael Hechmer <mhech...@gmail.com> wrote: > Doug, you pose the perfect question for me to share my experience with > cantilevers and why I continue to believe in hi straddle and hi profile > cantis. > > My first experience with cantis, after years of good riding with Campy Grand > Sport LR brakes and Chorus SR brakes came around 2000, when I bought a SOMA > DBL Cross for commuting and had it outfitted with my first Ultegra 9 spd. > system and the then new Ultegra Low Profile canti brakes. The bike and > brakes were installed by the best mechanic in VT, including the very short > straddle wire supplied by Shimano. Braking was awful, downright scary for > commuting. I replaced the pads with Salmons and that helped somewhat. I > finally abandoned the SIS brifters, replacing with Cane Creek & Silver > shiftes and the braking rose to the level of OK. Setup, with Shimano > Brifters, was also pretty tedious and the brakes needed to be re-centered > every time I put the bike into the back of the car or did any almost thing > else. The brifters, which were designed for short reach side pulls, simply > did not work together with cants. I have avoided low profile brakes (and > briftes) ever since. > > After a poor-braking-near-death-experience, I bought a pair of hi profile > Pauls and found that with a very hi straddle wire, as recommended by Paul, I > had easy set up and great braking. > > My next experience with Cantis was a pair of hi profile, short arm di comp > which came on a 1984 Trek 620 I bought on ebay. Much to my surprise these > brakes also delivered mediocre power, even with salmon pads. > > Now my Ram and my tandem have Paul's Racer Ms and Racers respectively. My > Ebisu has neo retros with a hi straddle wire and my now pretty beat up > winter bike SOMA has those di comps, which I'm planning on replacing with > Tektros and a hi straddle wire. > > When I was much younger I would say, "Who needs brakes, they just slow you > down!" Now, medicare not withstanding, I really like having brakes I can > rely on. Intimations of mortality no doubt. > > michael > recovering from lower back strain and Irene, in Vermont -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
