Originally Posted by
wrk101
[...]
Those old canti brakes can provide excellent stopping power, properly adjusted. Its a touring bike, so it was designed to stop an average rider with a lot of heavy gear packed on the bike.
Does it look like the straddle cables on the OP's Raleigh bike are way too long? If I undertand the geometry, that will result in a real lot of cable pull for not much pad movement. If the pads are in contact with the rims and you've got lots of lever movement left, you can stop those rims. But, if you run out of lever, it could be exciting.
But, maybe I have it backwards.