Originally Posted by
Ithaka
Okay:
1. maybe I moved the pads around to a less than ideal position, but the bike braked badly when I first started riding it.
2. the cable that has the little 'tabs' on it that pull the calipers up is a certain length . If I lower the yoke, the brake pads will rest even farther away from the rim... how can this help?
3. I said in the OP that I had replaced the pads twice in a last couple years.
hmm, problem #2 is a real deal breaker.
the thing that makes a good cantilever brake is how you can adjust the straddle cable length.
To work around that, I'm quite sure you can setup threadless stud types so that the pads sit in closer. There's no rule that says the studs have to be close into the brakes.