WTH is this little thingy? How does it work with brakes?

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Combination cable housing stop and cable router? Is the orientation correct? Possibly the unit should rotate about 90 degrees clockwise? Just spitballin' here.

the housing goes in the one side and the cable to the cantilever and the other side gets just the cable. it pivots a bit to be in the correct orientation. cannondale part

Cannondale engineering.
Nice idea, seems like it could have worked.

Thanks for the pic--that's a huge help.

Honestly, that looks like a terrible idea.

That's probably why it was an evolutionary dead end.

Older cantilever brakes with separate saddle cable had possible safety problem of the saddle cable becoming detached from the main brake cable, such as if the saddle anchor bolt slipped or if saddle cable somehow jumped off the hanger (user error). The saddle cable would then snag the MTB tire tread blocks and lock the wheel, particularly unsafe if that happens to front wheel. I think this was cannondales attempt to mitigate the safety problem since the saddle cable cannot get over the eccentric pivot. Shimano did things different with the main brake cable anchored directly to the cantilever arm and a piece of brake cable housing going to opposite leg of the saddle cable Y.

My thoughts exactly.

This was a VERY brief, like 2-year mid-1990's part by Cannondale that was supposed to have some of the same advantages as V brakes. Mountain bikes needed stronger brakes and that was the gist of the ad copy. But probably just as important, canti brakes were ill compatible with full suspension bikes due to their need for a cable stop on the floating link or the fork lowers. V brakes won. Shimano had essentially cornered the component market and V brakes were their baby. This thing disappeared.

In Chukk's photo I think it's a little out of adjustment. The bit of cable shown on the left is a little too long and the right is a little short. It should be ccw about 1/8 turn, so as the brake engages, it rotates cw until the right cable is coming about straight out of the housing when the brake is fully engaged

I got some of these once for a project I don't remember now and I put one of them in the Box o' Crap with its parts and lost the other one. Which means I have it... somewhere.

Aha! Thanks for the illustrations and explanations. Not my bike, but I saw it and was like, what the heck is that?

That's the Cannondale Force 40 Plus ( I think)
l can't seem too be able to attach file, but searching on the interwebs will get you there!

Is that a pepperoni fork? Have you checked it's recall status?

At least it was rejected within 2 years. How long did it go before the press-fit bottom bracket was rejected?

Ok. That makes more sense. And a whole lot less at the same time. So the cable pulls the gizmo clockwise, which pulls the trailing cable tightening the brake on the left toward the rim.

Not sure how that would ensure a balanced pull on both sides.

Interesting though.

By my count it has seven adjustments, which is one more than a V brake:

It's really no surprise V brakes won out and then hydraulic discs beat them

Late 1990s part; just before the dawn of V-brakes. I've seen a version of it on some Treks, as well; want to say it was a DiaCompe part.
Not surprising; Cannondale seems to have been one of the last holdouts for SunTour and non-Shimano components.

Once you get into suspension and the late-NORBA era of sloping top tubes and compact rear triangles; cantis get hard to package. V-brakes are much more accommodating in terms of cable routing, and are simpler to install/setup, to boot
Alternate cantis were sort of a stop -gap; none of them lasted very long

Yup!

The Suntour Power Hanger!


Grail Straddle Cable Yokes!

Scott said it worked excellent!!!

V-brakes came out in the mid-1990s.

Should have said "before everything went V-brakes" You've always got those transitional periods where both techs are existing side by side.
I don't recall anyone being in a big rush to convert their canti bikes to Vs, unless you were one of those guys who couldn't get the hang of setting up cantis correctly

I held out because I had badass cantis; DiaCompe 987s with Straddle Rods on one bike and Control Tech "Jimi's" on the other

The Trek version appears to be a clone, albeit with the Trek logo stamped/molded in (see post #53 of the linked thread). My '94-is 950 has one, with Shimano cantis. I remember finding a document on it similar to the Suntour doc, touting it as the latest space-age advance in cantilever brake technology, or some such.

It was fun revisiting that thread, seeing some of the more creative designs. Someone should come up with one depicting Yosemite Sam saying "BACK OFF!", with the straddles going to the canti arms coming out of the guns in his two hands.

I enjoyed starting all those "grail" threads- everybody was using the word "grail" to mean: "something I sorta like, kinda." So it was an excuse to post stuff I sorta kinda like.

And I'm still enthralled with the Spooky yokes.

I think it's been down hill since the ubrake.
Linear pull brakes are so damn simple to set up, and even the lower quality ones are effective enough.
Disks are bone simple, but inelegant (butf'ingugly) so I don't want to look at them.
Drum brakes are great, but progress has taken the artistic beauty away.
Yah, whiner.

Because the minds eye.
You see yourself on this steed, this machine that has always enthralled you, pleased your eye.
One comes along, the price is right, the size is close and you close the deal.
You take it home, strip it, clean it, lube and lovingly adjust everything to tuning perfection on the rack.
You feel your heart race as you wheel your NEW bike outside and lift your leg over it for the very first time.
You pull the pedal up into position, place your butt in the saddle and proceed to begin your journey.
a mile in you're thinking fun. two miles in your lower back is still adjusting to the position, then you forearms start to hurt about 6 miles in and by mile 10 you are thinking having is not as good as wanting.