Bottecchia fan
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Colorado Springs, CO
Posts: 3,520
Bikes: 1959 Bottecchia Milano-Sanremo (frame), 1966 Bottecchia Professional (frame), 1971 Bottecchia Professional (frame), 1973 Bottecchia Gran Turismo, 1974 Bottecchia Special, 1977 Bottecchia Special (frame), 1974 Peugeot UO-8
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Any hope for better braking? Not happy with these cantis
I had always heard that cantis offer better stopping power but I've never been happy with those on my PT-3500. They have plenty of stopping power if you are in the drops where you can grab a handful of brake lever and squeeze hard but I typically ride it with my hands on the hoods and from there the stopping power is mediocre. There just isn't enough leverage. I'm using Shimano "aero" levers and the original Shimano canti brakes with some good pads. Modern dual-pivots will damned near throw you over the handlebars from the hood position but even a very firm squeeze on these just slows me down. It's not a fair comparison because I can't really operate the brakes on my Bottecchia or Peugeot from the hoods due to the older style levers but from the drops they have much better brake feel and stopping power with the Universal and MAFAC center-pulls. Any suggestions? Different levers? Different canti brakes? Adjustments to the hangers? I'm open to ideas.
You can see the setup here - those are not the pads that I'm using now but everything else is the same:
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1959 Bottecchia Milano-Sanremo(frame), 1966 Bottecchia Professional (frame), 1971 Bottecchia Professional (frame),
1973 Bottecchia Gran Turismo, 1974 Bottecchia Special, 1977 Bottecchia Special (frame),
1974 Peugeot UO-8, 1988 Panasonic PT-3500, 2002 Bianchi Veloce, 2004 Bianchi Pista