Anyone ever been satisfied with Cantilever brakes ?

[7Speed]

If you can lock the wheel, that's as much as brakes will work......the wheel has stopped rotating....thats it

My m900 cantilevers can chuck me over the bars, just like the disc can on my modern bike...just need to squeeze a wee bit harder .

M730.....muummmmm, that's a bit more of a squeeze!

Reading this thread and thought the same thing.

 

[The History Man]

Chestnuts, roasting on an open fire……………….

 

[minor_LEGEND]

To answer the original post, YES. They can be great, with a good pad/rim interface (same pads don't play well with certain alloys) & the cable angles & geometry at their optimum they will work nicely. The black LX low pros on my Orange Prestige are really powerful. The rear can lock effortlessly with one finger & has stacks of modulation - no need to be locking up but it can.

Draggy cables & bad setup is the typical issues along with pads that simply offer no 'grab'.

 

[raidan73]

Surely the answer to the original question is yes, for most of a certain age? I'm guessing the majority of us were young teenagers, or thereabouts, when we got our first canti equipped MTB's. I can't imagine many wishing for better brakes at that time; we were just excited to have a vast improvement over BMX calipers. Sure as things have progressed they don't seem as great as they once were, but we were satisfied with black and white TV's, until colour came along.

 

[MattiThundrrr]

Satisfied with cantilevers? I'm not go to answer with words

Discussion settled

 

[clubby]

If you can lock the wheel, that's as much as brakes will work......the wheel has stopped rotating....thats it

My m900 cantilevers can chuck me over the bars, just like the disc can on my modern bike...just need to squeeze a wee bit harder .

M730.....muummmmm, that's a bit more of a squeeze!

In ideal conditions maybe. Throw in mud and grit and it’s a different matter. V’s are more powerful, consistent and generally easier to set up. Don’t look as good though. Both suffer from excessive pad and rim wear in crap weather plus needing constantly adjusted as the pads wore. Been using disks since 98 and never looked back on my main bikes.

Canti’s are still good on period build though. Last canti bike I built was used for easy trails and were more than enough. Rocker straddle set ups such as Cannondales Force 40 or Pace’s RC35 set up really upped the power but were a PITA to set up.

 

[Vesatoro]

In ideal conditions maybe. Throw in mud and grit and it’s a different matter. V’s are more powerful, consistent and generally easier to set up. Don’t look as good though. Both suffer from excessive pad and rim wear in crap weather plus needing constantly adjusted as the pads wore. Been using disks since 98 and never looked back on my main bikes.

Canti’s are still good on period build though. Last canti bike I built was used for easy trails and were more than enough. Rocker straddle set ups such as Cannondales Force 40 or Pace’s RC35 set up really upped the power but were a PITA to set up.

Yes and no. I think the Force 40+ is quite simple to set up, just following the instructions. Most common mistake: spring pins in symmetrical positions. What they do require is very true wheel. If not, one ends up the pads too far away. I like the power and modulation they offer when set up correctly.

 

[PanoIgano]

I found that if you are willing to use a shimano link bridge straddle and follow Brown’s advice on setting them up you can end up with very good breaking results.

I know the shimano straddles are not as nice looking as some classic hangers out there but they do work much better.

Also salmon Kool stops are tops in most conditions…certainly dry ones.

Finally here is the money quote on the feel bad function section of Browns article on cantis:
The brakes with the rock-hard feel may seem nice on the work stand or the showroom floor, but when it comes to making the bike actually stop, the spongy set-up will do the job better, with less finger pressure and greater margin for safety in wet conditions.

 

[muddytreker]

I was a big fan of canti brakes up untill around 1989, when the front main brake cable on my Muddy Fox Explorer
snapped on a road descent, the straddle cable dropped into the tyre knobblys causing the front wheel
to lock up, bending the rigid front forks almost back into the downtube, oh how I flew.

Not long later discovered some little plastic device in the bike shop called a rhino horn, this
bolted through the fork crown hole to act as a catch hook, bit bloody late, by this time I had reversed
my forks and used a couple of bits of angle as splints on each fork blade, held together with some sort of gaffa
tape, obviously no front brake at this point and I couldnt afford a new fork, over time a flex developed which
made for a suspension feel.

Avoid these types of cantilever straddle cable.

 

[Frankenorange]

I was a big fan of canti brakes up untill around 1989, when the front main brake cable on my Muddy Fox Explorer
snapped on a road descent, the straddle cable dropped into the tyre knobblys causing the front wheel
to lock up, bending the rigid front forks almost back into the downtube, oh how I flew.

Not long later discovered some little plastic device in the bike shop called a rhino horn, this
bolted through the fork crown hole to act as a catch hook, bit bloody late, by this time I had reversed
my forks and used a couple of bits of angle as splints on each fork blade, held together with some sort of gaffa
tape, obviously no front brake at this point and I couldnt afford a new fork, over time a flex developed which
made for a suspension feel.

Avoid these types of cantilever straddle cable.
View attachment 837871

If you use fork mounted hangers; another way of keeping the straddle cable off the tyre is looping a cable tie(zip tie) around the hanger and the straddle cable. Set it so the straddle can't fall on to the tyre without the main cable.

It goes without saying that brake inner cables, and straddles for cantis, is something not to skimp on. Always buy a named brand, from a real bikeshop, and in stainless. Avoid joerandom1234 on ebay and his super cheap, non-stainless, and no-name inners as they could actually be made of cheese.