Doug, you pose the perfect question for me to share my experience with cantilevers and why I continue to believe in hi straddle and hi profile cantis.
My first experience with cantis, after years of good riding with Campy Grand Sport LR brakes and Chorus SR brakes came around 2000, when I bought a SOMA DBL Cross for commuting and had it outfitted with my first Ultegra 9 spd. system and the then new Ultegra Low Profile canti brakes. The bike and brakes were installed by the best mechanic in VT, including the very short straddle wire supplied by Shimano. Braking was awful, downright scary for commuting. I replaced the pads with Salmons and that helped somewhat. I finally abandoned the SIS brifters, replacing with Cane Creek & Silver shiftes and the braking rose to the level of OK. Setup, with Shimano Brifters, was also pretty tedious and the brakes needed to be re-centered every time I put the bike into the back of the car or did any almost thing else. The brifters, which were designed for short reach side pulls, simply did not work together with cants. I have avoided low profile brakes (and briftes) ever since. After a poor-braking-near-death-experience, I bought a pair of hi profile Pauls and found that with a very hi straddle wire, as recommended by Paul, I had easy set up and great braking. My next experience with Cantis was a pair of hi profile, short arm di comp which came on a 1984 Trek 620 I bought on ebay. Much to my surprise these brakes also delivered mediocre power, even with salmon pads. Now my Ram and my tandem have Paul's Racer Ms and Racers respectively. My Ebisu has neo retros with a hi straddle wire and my now pretty beat up winter bike SOMA has those di comps, which I'm planning on replacing with Tektros and a hi straddle wire. When I was much younger I would say, "Who needs brakes, they just slow you down!" Now, medicare not withstanding, I really like having brakes I can rely on. Intimations of mortality no doubt. michael recovering from lower back strain and Irene, in Vermont -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rbw-owners-bunch/-/sPDeqR8sybsJ. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
