Retro bling / performance trade-off

mmm decisions, decisions..... I'm in the process of 'upgrading' the RC200 to single-speed and have come to a decision point with the brakes that I would like to swap out since the levers are currently XTR combo's. Now the Pace is an anodized red one (bare with me cos this is real important) and I spotted a pair of NOS retro Avid speed-dial levers (in anodized red of course) but are canti. Wanting also to upgrade my brakes at the same time but reluctant to go back to the old canti's - now I know you're not supposed to mix canti's with vee's, so was wondering if anyone has had any experience with the Avid Shortys, sure they are not retro but performance is key for me in the braking department as the downhill run is going to be the only place I will have any chance of keeping up with mates now. The other option is to replace the whole lot with XTR. Any thoughts, advice, or otherwise would be greatly appreciated?

:?

get the levers and get some 'travel agents', sort of cam things that increase the pull on normal levers

http://www.gaerlan.com/bikeparts/parts/brakes/brakes.html

and then find some nice red pauls crosstops....

Canti Lever Brakes.

I was looking at much the same thing, I have a nice set of Primal canti -levers that I would like to use on the next bike I do up. I hope to go canti brake on the rear (no rear disc tab), and use an Avid BB7 cable road disc on the front. Because road brake levers use the same cable pull as cantis, it breaths new life into your old levers.

for me the avid-lever works great with vee's, even if they haven t the v-chip. give them a try.

btw; got a set of frm-cantis

ride on

If you need any help single speeding the Pace give me a shout, do both disc and standard horizontal dropouts, look a lot nicer than running a chain tensioner