Originally Posted by
onespeedbiker
One always hears that if cantis are setup right they work as good or better than V's; with more modulation. It appears however there is world shortage of those that can properly adjust cantis. I used them for years and had extremely experienced mechanic's work on them and show me how to set them up. I read up with Sheldon Brown and tried tweaking for more power. One poster seemed to think that there is a problem with V brakes because they are so easy to set-up; cantilever brakes for idiots I believe he said. Well there is a reason that cantis have 4 finger levers and V's have 2 finger levers, it's because it takes a lot more to stop with cantis than with V's; this apparently is what is meant by modulation.
Far too often people confuse 'modulation' or a regulation of a brake's stopping ability according to measure or proportion with deceleration ability. If you squeeze a little and the bike slows down and then you squeeze some more and the bike slows down some more and then you squeeze really hard and the bike stops, that's good modulation. Just because you can squeeze the brakes a tiny little bit and throw yourself over the handlebars doesn't mean the brakes are 'well modulated'. If you use your face as part of your stopping strategy, you are doing something wrong
2 finger cantilever brake levers have been around forever. I currently have a set of Avid cantilever levers that are every bit as short as my Avid linear brake levers. 4 finger levers were traditionally used with cantilevers because the brake levers on the original mountain bikes came from motorcycles and were long levers.
Cantilevers have their place. Because the cable pull is the same as a sidepull caliper road brake, they work better with STI levers so using them on touring bikes and cross bikes is relatively straight forward. If you think that setting up a set of cantis is hard, try setting up a set of v-brakes with Travel Agents.
Stopping a bike with
any brake is more dependent on technique than on the brakes. Even the worst brakes in existence...early 80's Mavic knockoff center pulls with hard rubber brakes or a coaster brake... can can stop a bike. Because of the high center of gravity, bicycles are very limited in their stopping ability. Putting on more powerful brakes, along with bad technique, just makes the bike
more prone to pitchover quicker if you don't know how to use them.
Originally Posted by
onespeedbiker
Cantis first showed up on rear suspension bikes were a brake hanger would not work and Keith Bontrager was amongst those that still praised cantis, especially for their modulation (there's that word again). However, when it came down to it here, it was decided that a good set of cantis, set up properly are better than a cheap set of stamped out V brakes on a department store bike. I don't think that's saying alot.
I want my front brake to be the most powerful brake I can get. After most brakes work well on the rear wheel (except cheap BMX side-pulls; don't ask)
Huh? Cantilevers weren't used on many full suspension bikes because of the anchoring problems. They certainly didn't show up first on rear suspension bikes. Cantilevers are very old technology... I've seen patents from 1939. That's a whole lot longer than full suspension bikes have been around.
Even linear brakes have problems with full suspension. That's the main reason that hub mounted discs have come into such prominence. The cable/tubing routing is much easier when the rear end of the bike starts moving around independently of the rider and controls.