What are the best cantilever brakes

[User16390]

Anyone out there give me some recommendations for the best performing cantilever brakes to replace my rather old and tired ones on my touring bike please

 

[HLaB]

Never used them but the avid shorty are supposed to be good brakes.

 

[John the Monkey]

What levers do you have?

For Tiagra STi, I like Oryx, but they have to be gapped *very* close to the rim to work well, and need relatively frequent adjustment.

Tektro CR720 will give you more clearance, at the expense of (ime) power.

For levers designed for cantis, I don't really know, as I understand that they are better tuned to the mechanical advantage of a conventional canti brake. Anecdotally, for such levers, the CR720 with a reasonably low straddle wire is thought to be good.

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

i upgraded to v brakes, far superior and was cheap at £12 per pair

 

[MichaelM]

i upgraded to v brakes, far superior and was cheap at £12 per pair

With STI's?

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

op doesn't mention sti's

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

plus travel agents make v's useable with sti's anyway

 

[HLaB]

plus travel agents make v's useable with sti's anyway

Useable would be the correct word, they are far from perfect

 

[John the Monkey]

With STI's?

Possible - either with travel agents (which personally, I don't fancy very much) or with "mini-vs" which have shorter arms to match the mechanical advantage of road levers. I've yet to try them myself, but intend to at some point.

This is a useful thread for figuring out what sort of mini-v you need;
http://forums.roadbikereview.com/showthread.php?t=146309

The plus of these is that they tend to be cheap (£10 - £15) so it won't break the bank to try them out.

 

[HLaB]

Possible - either with travel agents (which personally, I don't fancy very much) or with "mini-vs" which have shorter arms to match the mechanical advantage of road levers. I've yet to try them myself, but intend to at some point.

This is a useful thread for figuring out what sort of mini-v you need;
http://forums.roadbi...ad.php?t=146309

The plus of these is that they tend to be cheap (£10 - £15) so it won't break the bank to try them out.

That's interesting JohnTM; my v's are 90mm and I use them with travel agents and the braking is not perfect but it looks like I can get 75mm. The bike's on the turbo atm but if I ever put it back on the road I might try 75mm brake arms ;-)

 

[Dave Davenport]

Not sure if these are the 'best' but I've got them on my tourer and have found they work pretty well in all conditions, they're a lot better than the Tektro ones on mrs d's tricross. Bloody good brakes for 20 quid anyway.

http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/suntour-...antilever-brake-set-front-and-rear-prod18982/

 

[John the Monkey]

That's interesting JohnTM; my v's are 90mm and I use them with travel agents and the braking is not perfect but it looks like I can get 75mm. The bike's on the turbo atm but if I ever put it back on the road I might try 75mm brake arms ;-)

I did the measuring and the LHT needs 85m, by my reckoning. It's something I keep meaning to try, but it's at the back of the queue behind a couple of wheel builds &c