Others may be "loving" this thread, but I'm finding it a bit mystifying.
First, I've owned a lot of different brakes in the past 35 years and with two exceptions they all provided both good stoping and good modulation. I don't know why I would want to switch to V brakes to get better stopping. My wife and I have each had bikes with V brakes which offered good stopping, but weren't any better than the Superbe Pros she currently uses, or my Campy Grand Sports, both of these are ancient single pivot designs. The two sets of brakes that I have had that were sub par were both cantis -Shimano 550s and the original Dia Compes on my Trek 620, about which the last post offered a blog. I suspect that both of these brakes were designed with MTB levers in mind. The Shimano were particularly horrendous to set up and use with Ultegra brifters. So I wonder if some of the really bad experience people have had with cantis is because they have been mated to levers which were optimized for short reach side pulls. I replaced the original Trek 620 brakes with the Campy Grand Sport. I can't for the life of me figure out why Trek sold a so called touring bike with mediocre canti brakes, a 57 mm brake reach, and barely enough clearance for 32 mm tires & fenders. But it is a great riding frame. While I'm on this subject the older single pivot brakes give much better fender clearance than modern dual pivots and I would suggest it as an option to people who find their dual pivot brakes crowding their fenders. About the only brake I wouldn't consider using today is a dual pivot side pull, despite how easy they are to set up. As for cantis, in addition to being just as sensitive to brake line pull as V brakes, I can't help but wonder if too many of us have been subjected to low cost cantis which proved hard to set up and offered inadequate power? After sliding into the back of a truck I abandoned my Shimano brakes and levers and installed Paul's neo retros and Cane Creek levers. Soon after I made a panic stop from under 20 mph to avoid a right hook. I stopped on the dime and lifted the rear wheel about three inches off the ground. I can't ask for more than that from a brake. In short, make sure the cantis you are installing really are designed for road levers, ( I now use levers with built in releases exclusively - either Campy or Cane Creek.) Learn how to set them up. Paul's brakes, which I have on three bikes, are expensive and the set up is a little different. But they will last forever, stay aligned beautifully and, once you learn how, are a breeze to adjust. happy trails, Michael On Saturday, May 12, 2012 1:24:23 PM UTC-4, joe b. wrote: > > On Sat, May 12, 2012 at 6:35 AM, Montclair BobbyB > <montclairbob...@gmail.com> wrote: > > I'm loving this debate. I have both canti and V-brakes. > > > > I love the way the cantis look, and I'm marginally satisfied with > > their performance (although I suspect I just haven't figured out the > > optimal setup) > > I'd recommend getting your hands on some medium profile cantis like > the 90s era XT level Shimanos > ( > http://nihonmaru.blogspot.com/2011/08/phoenix-project-shimano-m732-cantilever.html). > > > I've set them up several different ways on different bikes, and they > always perform really well for me. Others who've ridden those bikes > say the same. I helped a friend set up some cr720s on his Kogswell, > and try as we might they were always a bit weak. > > I've also found dime a dozen low profile brakes to work great with MTB > levers, but they're hard to set up for aero road levers. > > Best, > joe broach > portland, or > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rbw-owners-bunch/-/U42rD7ceBwkJ. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
