Originally Posted by
HillRider
+100. I had a pair of early '90's Shimano LX cantis on a similar age MTB and they were always a pain to set up and never really worked all that well. If the pads were far enough out they tended to squeal badly.
I just installed a set of new Shimano BR-R550 cantis on a Surly Cross Check. These have V-brake type pads and the pad holder to arm distance is fixed by spacers. What a difference! The set up was super easy and the performance is worlds better.
you don't know squeal til you've had a set of the old 70s vintage Mafac cantis which were used on tandems in that period. they were made from two pieces of alumium riveted together, and had geometry very similar to the Deores' pictured on my 83 Stumpjumper above... in fact, they CAME on that 83 Stumpjumper, Specialized switched to the Shimanos right after I bought mine, and so did I. they stopped OK, but only with the scream of 1000 banshees. was great for clearing a bike trail of baby strollers, muahahahahaa.
interesting re: the ratios on the tektro dual pulls. I originally got them because my old cruiser had a sturmey archer drum brake in the rear, and a cheap diacompe style sidepull front. The drum had never worked right with conventional levers, but worked MUCH better with the vbrake setting on the tektros, and the sidepull was OK (about as good as it got) with the 'short' setting on the tektros.