Originally Posted by
Retro Grouch
You should have seen the ration of rag that I took when I suggested that V-brake levers will work with cantys or calipers. I don't know how many pounds of force it takes to operate a bicycle brake but I don't think that it's very much. If it takes 5 lbs with a canty lever that would make it 10 lbs with a V-brake lever. That's double but it's still not very much.
Cantilever brakes do take a tad more power to activate, pounds of pressure to activate see the next paragraph, but if my 95 pound daughter can activate those brakes without screaming in pain, or screaming because she can't stop, then probably...note, I said probably, a normal size adult can stop without problems.
And single pull brakes probably take less then 6 pounds of force to activate. So your pounds of force thing got me to thinking, how could I test the pounds of force to activate my levers. Then it occurred to me I have a fish weigh scale...fine, it's not very scientifically accurate but it's all I have. I took the scale hook and hooked it at the end of the levers and pulled each lever until the levers were at full depression The two cantilevers I have took the most, as I thought, the DiaComp took 8 pounds and the Shimano took 6. The single pivot brakes took between 4 to 6 pounds of pull tested on 3 different brands (two Shimanos, one medium and one highend; one highend Suntour, and one medium DiaComp). The dual pivot Athena brake took 4 pounds...exactly the same as the Suntour Superbe!!
By the way the DiaComps (one cantilever and one single pivot) took more pressure to activate then the Shimano cantilever or single pivot, with the exception of the Superbe which was made by DiaComp.
Also I'm sure cables, and adjustment factors are variables which I could not eliminate.
If I tested the same thing again except this time just till the brakes touched the rims the activation force was obviously far less coming in between 3 to 1.5 pounds...again, the 1.5 pounds was on both the Superbe and the Athena. I also tried one the old kids single pivot Walmart bike brakes and it took 9 pounds, the most of any brake which figures.
Now please note, I did allude to this in the above paragraph, a small fish scale is not very scientific, but it gets the point across. My daughter, when she was 8 and weighed 40 pounds use to be able to activate her Walmart bike brakes with no problems and even get the brakes to lock up the tires! Imagine that! And she was not some superwoman, today she only weighs 95 pounds and she's 23 years old and has no problems activating her cantilever brakes...but she probably has massive Popeye type forearms from using her Walmart bike.
Now in the words of the famous Kimmo, I'm done waving my dick around about this.
Not sure what Kimmo wants to know about riding conditions. I know some of my pads are Campy, Shimano, DiaComp, and Superbe, others don't have brand names, but I doubt if either Campy, Shimano, DiaComp or Suntour make their own pads, so it's anybody's guess as to who made them.