Same here. With the aid of 25.000 brake boosters at the front and a broom stick between the spokes, I never had problems doing endos with canti brakes.
In all seriousness, Cantis are a pain in the you-know-what to set up, and even then they simply don't perform as good as a set of cheap Vee brakes.
As for the date, I'm fairly happy with that. 1997 marked a major change.
Manufacturers started doing less radical stuff and the whole industry started refining products more than inventing new ones.
The only radical change I can think of since 1997 is the Hollowtech system, and I wouldn't be surprised if someone proved me wrong there by showing a pre-1997 version.