mickey85

So I finally de-mothballed my Univega a couple days ago and took it on it's first ride last night. Noticed something I think I forgot...

The wheels grind when you hit the brakes. I've swapped brake pads (new ones, old ones, doesn't matter), and it doesn't help. I've scrubbed the rims. Haven't seen so much nastiness on bike brakes in my life (imagine pulling off the drum brakes from a car, sticking your hand in there and rubbing it around, and you get an image of the black that my hands were). Still didn't help.

The rims seem rather rough, and I'd expect them to have excellent braking, but they rather suck. I've never been able to get this bike to brake well. I'm told that cantilever brakes are the bees knees, but have never ever been able to lock up the wheels (even with 700X28's).

They're Araya PX-45's. Any suggestions?

Also, how the heck do I get these cantis to work? It originally had Suntour brakes with straddle cables and yokes, but I finally got tired of trying to finagle the front one, and went with a Shimano brake and link wire on the front. Didn't do a lick of good. I can still flex it all the way to the handlebar when braking hard, and it still only kinda slows.

I've read about mechanical advantage and whatnot, and have tried the straddle cables low, tried 'em high, tried 'em in-between. NOTHING works on these stupid things, I swear.

I'm running aero brake levers on drop bars, and noticed last night (pre-ride) that the tape (electrical tape double wrapped under plastic bar tape) was flexing. Figuring that would be the problem, I also double wrapped it in duct tape. Now it doesn't flex...the brake hanger and brake arms do.

Should I just give up on these brakes and ditch the low-profiles for a set of Tektro CR720's?

WNG

OK, you mentioned running aero levers.....which brand? It wouldn't happen to be Dia Compe would it? The flexing housing under the tape tells me you may have installed the levers without their ferrules. They anchor the housing at the lever body. They are little aluminum, convex shaped ferrules.

mickey85

Made that mistake too...added the ferrules the second time around. DIdn't help braking. The first time I put drop bars on it, they were Shimano brand (nothing especially special), this time around, they're Dia Compes, with the ferrules.

I even had this problem when I had bullmoose bars and MTB levers...went to V brakes and never looked back for that. I'm tempted to grab a set of the Tektro V-brake levers, but would love to keep the cantis if I could get them to perform.

WNG

Scratching my head. Very odd. But I did read here some swore that particular Dia Compe cantis couldn't stop at all. Maybe swap out parts and wheels with another bike to isolate the problem. Otherwise, can't fault V-brakes, I'm sold on them after one squeeze.

vjp

You need to toe in your brake pads.

mickey85

I did. THey don't squeal, they grind. If I didn't know better, I'd say it was metal on metal. But not screechy.