Originally Posted by
davester
Can you tell us exactly what the problem is? Obviously the brakes won't work well if the pads are old and hardened, or the rims are dirty. In addition, how good are your cables and housings. Old, unlined high friction housings and cables can have a substantial negative effect on braking power. Furthermore, cantilevers are very sensitive to setup (i.e. straddle cable lengths and angles, spring preload), etc. It looks to me that someone has changed the setup of those brakes so that may be part of the problem. Check out this article for some tips:
https://bike.bikegremlin.com/1739/ca.../#comment-3402. One more thing...it looks like you have changed the stem and handlebars. Have you also changed the brake levers? The photos don't show the levers so I'm wondering if you have perhaps changed levers and are using a type with a different mechanical advantage than is required for the cantilevers.
I would like the brakes to be stronger. Sometimes on a steep hill I'm squeezing them hard and I can't seem to come to a complete stop. The pads are old and replacing them with some salmon kool stops will probably make it better. I'm just waiting for the old pads to wear out before putting new ones on. I think the levers are high gain specifically for cantilevers. Housings are lined. Not sure about the setup of the straddle cable to be honest as I don't have a lot of experience with cantis. Photos of the relevant parts below:
