Originally Posted by
Gene2308
I'd love to see a test of a set of cantilevers, with the best pads, adjusted with TLC vs. a $15 set of no-name v-brakes with stock pads, assembled by a kid in a test.
Dead technology.
My Kona Lava Dome with its 20 year old cantis can stop as fast as any modern disc brake MTB in the dry, and much faster than any racing bike.
You might have read the Brown article, but you certainly didn't adjusted your brakes properly. For which I don't blame you at all, because SB's article is rather complex. Go to the cross forum and search for old threads there - especially the ones that reference Bontrager's *much* simpler guide to tuning cantis. (Basically: set the pads for minimum clearance and then set the straddle cable as flat as you can - if you want maximum power).
*However* even if you get your cantis into high power mode, you may then suffer from irritating squealing or even fork shudder. You can avoid this by fitting
Mini Vees - they're pull compatible with road levers, don't squeal or cause fork judder, and require zero adjustment skill. They're cheap too.
Cantis still exist because they're more versatile - you can tune them to trade clearance for power, which is great for cross. But they're really an advanced tool for specialist riders. Most people would be better served by Mini Vees - I really think they should be fitted to all but high end cross bikes as standard. It's especially irritating when bikes with under-engineered forks and headsets are sold with cantis, so that hard braking throws him into judder mode, lousing up control. (Personally I just wish the idiot UCI would legalize disc brakes for cross racing, than cantis would disappear. But they're too bust defending Lance Armstrong's right to stall drug testers...)