Originally Posted by
Fallingwater
However, the brakes are still far from ideal. They're cheap cantilevers, and even after I set them so the pads are a hair's width from the rims they still don't have enough braking power to be called safe.
It could be that the bike is set up with v-brake levers and cantilever brakes. Due to the longer cable pull of v-brake levers, the force at the brake will be reduced.