Originally Posted by
Gene2308
No, man. I thought I made it clear that I used a drop bar (and hence road levers) but I used shimano 105 road levers on the drop bar for the cantilevers. I use linear pull mountain levers on a flat bar for my v-brake. This is not a cable pull issue, it's a cantilevers are weaker than v-brakes issue.
you can replace all the pads you want, but I'd rather have v-brakes with crappy pads than cantilevers with kool stops any day.
Tried this, believe me. I read all of the Sheldon article about 10 times, and the cool geometry article posted recently with the schematic and everything. I had to remove my fenders to "see" the cantilever arms to make sure they were aligned properly....still suck.
And the need for sudden housing bends hasn't even come up yet.
I'm not saying that some other brand might not be better, but v-brakes are just a better technology IMO...and you don't have to spend an extra $30 on pads to "get them to work acceptably".
According to the articles I've read, the exact opposite is actually true. Wide profile cantilevers have less mechanical advantage than low profiles, but supposedly have better "feel". I'd bet they still require spending $30 on decent pads to get any power out of them though.
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.
The Kool Stops came with the brakes when I bought them for $40 new off ebay. It was the first time I had ever installed or adjusted cantis. Yes it did take me 45 minutes of TLC, which I always use when putting new components on my bikes. If they can stop a loaded tourer in all types of weather then they are acceptable to me dead or not. How old you btw?