Cyclocross - Old school cantis

IMHO, Paul is THE highend canti brake. Period. Froglegs and Spookies are supposed to be good brakes also, but they lose out due to limited toe-in capabilities. Then there are all the other modern inexpensive cantis like shimano, avid, cane creek.

Who were the cool canti mfg companies of the past? Who made bad ass brakes before the disc brake revolution in the MTB world. Let's leave Mafac out of the argument. I'm interested in learning about older canti's that were CNC machined.

Were these tektro's any good? They are quite "disco", but what about the performance? Are they like most other tektro products?

http://i20.ebayimg.com/01/i/08/88/1a/b4_1_b.JPG

I have an old set of Onza cantilevers; but they don't even come close to the Paul's Neo-Retro for stoping power:

http://www.blackbirdsf.org/brake_obscura/images/mtb/onza.th.jpg

I found some cool brakes (and the photo of the Onzas) here:
Odd Brakes (http://www.blackbirdsf.org/brake_obscura/mtb.html)

Whole bunch of old machined cantis here:

http://www.bikepro.com/products/brakes/brake_canti.html

I remember Scott SE cantis from the early 1990's. These were the "self energizing" brakes that could send you OTB very easily once properly adjusted (and that was the real trick). I remember that it was actually pretty common to set them up for less than optimal braking power-- "de-tuning" them if you will. They came on every flippin' Scott bike sold way back then. They were the bike that ski shops sold in the off season!

Suntour licensed the design and sold them as "XC Pro" (i have a set). Unfortunately they only used the SE design on the rear brake. Foo. There were rumors that Suntour feared litigation and opted to not use the SE design for front brakes. Wimps.

I have some Suntour XC brakes, but they're kinda screwed up and I don't know which was back or front. Any way to determine that?

Those Tektro's are copies of the old Avid Tri-Align. The one's from way back that I remember best are the Macine Tech.

http://www.bikepro.com/products/brakes/brakecanti/canti/z1z_mach_tech.jpg

weinmann's were the shizz-nit back in the day. cant find a pic of them though. most of the euro's were rocking 'em.

I should post my brand new, never used Control Techs. After I bought them I realized they were POS. Didn't even see them in the old canti site.

http://i7.ebayimg.com/02/i/08/ce/50/a9_1.JPG

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=012&sspagename=STRK%3AMEBI%3AIT&viewitem=&item=220042538616&rd=1&rd=1

I'm pretty fond of my old CNC'd 'curve' brand cantis.

Grafton Speed Controllers are pretty hot looking and work alright; got a pair on my vintage MTB. For pure performance, I'm loving my Campagnolo Olympus cantis I'm rocking right now. IIRC they also made Euclid and Centaur.

Dia-Compe 986 and Shimano XT (from the 80's) lack the sex appeal, but they are GREAT brakes.

I remember Scott SE cantis from the early 1990's. These were the "self energizing" brakes that could send you OTB very easily once properly adjusted (and that was the real trick). I remember that it was actually pretty common to set them up for less than optimal braking power-- "de-tuning" them if you will. They came on every flippin' Scott bike sold way back then. They were the bike that ski shops sold in the off season!

Suntour licensed the design and sold them as "XC Pro" (i have a set). Unfortunately they only used the SE design on the rear brake. Foo. There were rumors that Suntour feared litigation and opted to not use the SE design for front brakes. Wimps.

I have a pair of the Scott SEs on my tandem...great brakes...on a tandem, going OTB is not an issue.