I look back on the last 15 years of my cycling life, and I gotta say.
Cantis suck. Single pivot sidepulls suck. The disc brakes on my weirdo
project bike brake very well, but go 'shk shk shk' in corners. The
nicer Avid v-brakes on my 1999 Bontrager have, aside from the initial
squealy pads ("hey, someone set these up without ceramic pads, let me
change that for you")... have been absolutely trouble free for 11
years. I've changed the pads a couple times. They have excellent
modulation, good stopping in wet or dry; I can do nosies on purpose,
but never on accident (well, once).Cantis for me are a crapshoot. I've set up dynamite dialed-in cantis a couple times, and as the pad wears, the braking degrades. Sometimes the canti arm dives under the rim (well, once). I study the charts, change out the pads (why should you even have to DO this?), finesse the setup, and then forget everything I learned the next time I have to set them up from scratch. I just hate the way v-brakes look on a roadified bike. They look like ass. I can't imagine putting them on my Quickbeam, but I don't want to sell a bike just to buy some green anodized Paul cantis. Actually, maybe I do. Philip Philip Williamson www.biketinker.com On Aug 30, 4:33 pm, dougP <dougpn...@cox.net> wrote: > 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.
