Originally Posted by DavoColo

Okay, this thread is (maybe not quite as) relevant as ever. But I just picked up a Surly Cross Check -- a frame around when this thread started and still around today -- and came here for an answer to a variation on our now age-old question: If I switch from drop bars to flat bars, keeping stock brakes, what levers do I use?

My next question would be: Why do the stock Tektro Oryx brakes provide so little stopping power? I bought the bike -- a 2010 -- just slightly used. But the breaks seriously have little to no power. Would an adjustment and new brake shoes give me something worth bothering with? Since I rarely if ever ride in mud here in the semi-desert part of Colorado, my inclination is to give up on cantilevers entirely and go with TRP CX9 short-arm linear-pull cyclocross brakes. A little less clearance, a lot more stopping power, I hear. If I did that, what flat-bar levers would I use?

Those are general questions. Does anyone have specific, state-of-the-art but not-freakishly-expensive, recommendations for specific flat-bar brake-lever models to go with the Oryx cantis or the CX9 linear-pulls?

Thanks for the opportunity to participate in the World's Oldest Thread.