canties - straddle or no straddle?

Why do some cantilever brakes have a straddle wire going from one side to the other, while others have the main wire going to one and then just a short wire going to the other. The front on my bike has a straddle wire but the rear doesn't.

No difference really. You've got more adjustment with a straddle wire as you can adjust the length/angles easier, but they work the same. You get anodized hangers for straddle wire, so that's the big benefit

Not sure whether other makes did this before Shimano, but they seemed to start with the special link wires. My understanding was that this was for two reasons:-

1. Cantis were frequently setup poorly in terms of the straddle wire angle, this having a marked effect on mechanical advantage, and the efficiency of the brakes.

2. Because cantis were now being used on mountain bikes, with gert knobbly tires, and on occasion, brake cables fail, if that happened, there was the possiblity of a normal straddle wire falling on to the tyre, and causing instant wheel lockup.

Somebody else will likely be along to correctly point out that vendor X did this way before Shimano "innovated" this development ;-)

True though. I used to keep the reflector bracket on the bike to catch the staddle in case of something snapping.

Carlos":1dmq3s4i said:

You get anodized hangers for straddle wire, so that's the big benefit

Click to expand...

Yikes!

It's probably going to make me something of an oddity, here, but that was one fashion from the 90s I couldn't stand - the tedious bling of lurid, anodised ally / alloy components.

It's the equivalent of Lexus lights, window tints, hooge exhaust cans, overdone and oversized alloys, and gold badges on chavved-up cars.

Oh, IMHO of course ;-)

Iwasgoodonce":2jdy09bw said:

True though. I used to keep the reflector bracket on the bike to catch the staddle in case of something snapping.

Click to expand...

I took that a stage further by cutting the bracket down and rounding it off so as not to have a reflector bracket clamping my style.....

Iwasgoodonce":38nq4ooc said:

True though. I used to keep the reflector bracket on the bike to catch the staddle in case of something snapping.

Click to expand...

Me too.

I was glad I did when I had a cable pull through as well.

Neil":14eq7kd0 said:

Yikes!

It's probably going to make me something of an oddity, here, but that was one fashion from the 90s I couldn't stand - the tedious bling of lurid, anodised ally / alloy components.

It's the equivalent of Lexus lights, window tints, hooge exhaust cans, overdone and oversized alloys, and gold badges on chavved-up cars.

Oh, IMHO of course ;-)

Click to expand...

freak :shock:

Like all bling, it depends on wether it is done with taste and a degree of style, just as a spoiler on a evo looks just right, he same spoiler on a saxo is just not cricket old chap.

Neil":1oa4gijz said:

Carlos":1oa4gijz said:

You get anodized hangers for straddle wire, so that's the big benefit

Click to expand...

Yikes!

It's probably going to make me something of an oddity, here, but that was one fashion from the 90s I couldn't stand - the tedious bling of lurid, anodised ally / alloy components.

Click to expand...

..
to be fair,
I didn't like purple when it had nothing to do with the bike, but a bit of simple colour coordination to remove the bland-ness is perfect