Originally Posted by
SnowJob
This tells me there is something seriously wrong with your setup. My experiences with cantis are that you need to squeeze the levers with a large amount of force in order to get any braking power out of them. Locking up the tires is only possible, in my experience, with higher end cantis. And in the rain they have very little power.
If your BB7s are set up right, you won't need to use much lever force at all to lock up the tires.
I went on a "road" ride today. Did about 60 miles through dirt, paved roads, mud, and gravel and my BB7s functioned perfectly. I'm getting to the point where I can hit the front brake and rear brakes just right to bring me to a stop much quicker than cantis or calipers, and on par with quality v-brakes. And in the rain, the BB7s lose absolutely no power. That's saying a lot, as I weigh 220 and my bike's about 25 lbs.
Read pkulak's first post. It's a new bike. That means that it
should be properly set up, it should have the proper levers matched with the proper calipers, have the proper cabling, etc.
As for cantilever brakes, I could...and can... lock up the wheels with cantilevers on 13 of the 32 bikes I've owned...including 2 tandems. If I couldn't, I adjusted them until I could or I replaced them. And, again, skidding is hardly a measure of braking effectiveness. I can skid a coaster brake equipped bike as could just about any 10 year old...and coaster brakes aren't a 'good brake' by anyone's standard.