I dug the old Raleigh Scorpion out of the garage at my parents house yesterday and gave it a tune-up. It has single-pivot caliper brakes of the long-reach type, typical of those found on older BMXs. They stop the bike ok, but having got used to cantilevers, I'd like it if the performance could be improved somewhat.

There are no bosses for cantilever brakes and I'm not confident in my ability to fit them, so that option is basically out. My question therefore boils down to this:

Can the performance of the brakes be improved by fitting better pads and/or more robust levers?

Would disk or drum brakes be a viable alternative?

Could 700c wheels be installed with shorter-reach calipers?

Pete