Originally Posted by phillybill
I had an 02 Proprad back in 04 and I was able to put a rear rack and Vbrakes with a travel agent on mine. Not sure about standard long reach calipers. But I did notice the other day the Pauls Components has a long reach center pull calipers brake that can be mounted on Canti posts. Those should work fine.
Those Paul center pulls require the canti posts to be brazed on in a special location, not where they'd normally go. Unless the frame was built with that brake in mind they can't be used.
Originally Posted by tblendell
venting begins here:
it came with a double in front and a 12-32 (ish) in the back which is fine for a road bike and maybe even for cross races (never done one), but for the offroad types of rides i wanted to do (the mountains mostly in and around LA) it was impossible gearing.
well, that's not really what the bike was designed for
Originally Posted by tblendell
and the brakes. the brakes sucked when i test rode it but i just thought they'd adjust them and it'd be okay. but i get the bike after the last "tune-up" before you take the bike home and they still sucked.
i have a sneaking suspicion that there is a large number of shop mechanics that don't know how to properly setup a canti brake. at least around these parts a lot of the shop mechanics i see are just kids* and probably don't get to deal with them a lot.
*i feel funny saying that considering i'm only 23