things i cannot do....

[cce]

i cannot do.....

cantis

i've just tried to set some up for the first time in about.... 12 years. the sum total of my woes?


both pads drag the rim badly, despite the fact the lever throw is massive
one arm moves far more than the other. any attempt to adjust this simply reverses the situation.
any atempt at applying said brake leads to merciless howling, no matter what i do.


i remember why i went over to v brakes now

 

[The Ken]

I had the same fine tuning issues with my U brake, still not right 3 months on, I used to be good at this stuff :roll: .

 

[velomaniac]

Retro is as much a state of mind as a physical ownership of kit. Go back to V-brakes, at the time you upgraded from canti to V you never thought this is just wrong for the age and authenticity of my bike. Why put up with rubbish now when you would not have done so in the past.

A friend of mine knows more about retro bikes than I'll ever know as he's ridden them since they first hit our shores. He is retro in the head but rides a seriously bling modern Yeti and constantly looks forward to the next gadget.

Cheers

 

[jango]

i think I've finally got the knack of cantis, fitted lx to one bike and they're brilliant.....so much so I've just ripped the Vs of another and bought some new xt cantis for that bike!!

having said that, I fitted some older xt cantis to Beakers Scott at the weekend and they were a bit of a pain in the a**e......

Which cantis are you trying to fit and to what?

 

[clockworkgazz]

Agree with all of the above but sometimes v's just do not look right.

I am prepared to put up with the extra hassle if, when i get off the bike and oogle my stead it does not offend mine eyes!

I love my bike more for how it looks than what it can do- sad but true.

 

[cce]

i think the fact i ride konas (the archetypal "upgrader's choice") means i can get away with fitting bits that arent period more easily than most.

upgrades were at the heart of the bike mentality when i got into it BITD, and i spent hours poring over flash parts for my not so flash bike. i also well remember EVERYONE fitting v brakes to their rigs in 1996/1997

 

[orange71]

It's like fitting Maguras (fit the left one first)... thankfully once fitted you don't ever have to readjust (thank god!).

 

[Agency_Scum]

" both pads drag the rim badly, despite the fact the lever throw is massive "
Sounds like it could be a spring issue as the pads aren't pulled off the rims enough. If they have them, try tightening the spring adjuster screws on the sides of the brakes.

" one arm moves far more than the other "
I used to have the pad which moved the least on the higher of the three spring anchor points on the canti mounts with the spring adjuster screw all the way out and the other pad left on it's original anchor point with more screw-in-tension.


" any attempt at applying said brake leads to merciless howling "
try filing off the glaze which may now be on the pad. Don't know if you know about " toe-in. "

 

[orange71]

never understood toe in because after 1 ride it was back to a flat even distribution anyway because of wear - or have I not understood it properly?

 

[velomaniac]

Canti's came from touring bikes I believe and they did not spend lots of time in highly gritty gloop known as British mud. Thus Toe In made perfect sense for increased brake effect as you applied force. Off road they are sandpapered flat against the rims totally negating any toe in advantage and thus the principal becomes pointless.
In the MTB homeland of California from where many ideas come from it does not suffer from mud as we do and thus toe in works fine.
Avoid this problem by either using more modern brakes or try to use the brakes less !

I will concede that some bikes look better with canti's regardless of the practical issues.

Cheers