Originally Posted by
arsprod
Hold on a sec, I think I'm confusing the issue (certainly myself). These brakes aren't original to the bike, got them from another. When I installed them I put the spring on the farthest out point (tightest). I notice there's a second stop on the removal side. For giggles I moved the cable over and it brings pads much closer but braking is worse. Am I trying to make something work that's not supposed to?
Those are canti brakes, and are supposed to work well with the same brake levers as for caliper brakes. (although I'm not too sure of some of Shimano's latest groupsets).
The spring location isn't to blame in this case, spring force is entirely dwarfed by the force you can generate by the lever. The different holes are there to make it possible to tune the return action so that both arms retract at the same rate. Some like e'm snappier. Me, I generally try to keep some spare adjustability for as long as possible.
Ah, I just realized what you meant by the 2nd stop. And no, you're not meant to use it like that.
As you've already found Sheldon, follow his piece on cantilever adjustment. Although to tinker with your setup you'd need to replace the link cable with a straddle cable - you run a separate cable from one arm to the other, then the cable coming from the lever hooks on with a yoke on the middle of that one. A bit more risk if the cable should snap, but more adjustability. Basically the flatter you run the straddle cable, the stronger(and less linear) the brake will be.