Changing cantilevers for V brakes

[bikingbob]

My 25 year old Raleigh is in good condition and is fitted with Shimano CT90M Altus cantilevers which provide adequate stopping performance but not as good as V brakes on bikes I have tried. Does anyone have any thoughts on whether V brakes would fit my Raleigh? I'm looking at either Shimano Alivio or Shimano XT BRT 780. Appreciate any thoughts/suggestions please. Thanks

[gaz]

Welcome to the forum.

Cantis and Vs use the same brake bosses. The distance between the bosses can differ, IMO on a '93 frame they are likely to be OK for Vs.

Brake levers for Vs have a different cable pull to those for cantis. Some flat bar levers are convertible between the two, if possible post the make and model number.

You'll need new inner and outer cables too.

[crazydave789]

My 25 year old Raleigh is in good condition and is fitted with Shimano CT90M Altus cantilevers which provide adequate stopping performance but not as good as V brakes on bikes I have tried. Does anyone have any thoughts on whether V brakes would fit my Raleigh? I'm looking at either Shimano Alivio or Shimano XT BRT 780. Appreciate any thoughts/suggestions please. Thanks

have a look at the avid ones.

[Brucey]

it is very simple to fit V brakes; you get new brake blocks, new levers, new cables, they usually work OK and they are (almost) idiot proof to set up.

However I would wager that you could make significant improvements to your present brakes; they are not intrinsically weak brakes, and if they are not working properly they probably just need some TLC. Also NB if you have integrated shifter/brake levers (as I suspect you might have on a 25-year old Raleigh) then it is certainly going to be a whole lot easier/cheaper to do this rather than replace them.

You will need to do some or all of the following

1) fit new brake cables, well prepped and with well lubricated inner cables
2) grease the brake bosses and make sure the arms rotate freely
3) fit new brake blocks (*)
4) adjust the arms to be slightly wider than you usually see them
5) lower the straddle cable as much as possible

(*) the old brake blocks may not be worn out but they were hard and abrasive when they were new and they will have only got worse since then. I suggest you use kool stops or a cartridge unit (eg the XTR pattern ones made by clarks, fitted with a soft compound brake block insert).

cheers

[pwa]

On my tourer the cantis work very well. Good modulation, not too grabby, but able to lock the wheels if you really wanted to do that. What more could you want? Just plain old Tektro CR720, which replaced less successful Orycx brakes. Using Shimano (non-integrated) levers of uncertain vintage. The set-up needs very little fettling, mainly keeping an eye on pad wear and taking up slack in the cable during the wearing process.

[PH]

My 25 year old Raleigh is in good condition and is fitted with Shimano CT90M Altus cantilevers which provide adequate stopping performance but not as good as V brakes on bikes I have tried.

Are we talking about straight bars or drops and are they the same on both your bike and those you've tried with Vs? I've never been able to get either brake to work as well on drops as I can on straights, that may be partly because of the available levers, but IMO it's mostly the way our hands are. I have one bike that's had the bars and levers swapped back and forth, with everything else remaining the same, all combination have been adequate, though straight bars (Particularly with Vs) have always been better. With the drop bar levers I've used (Campag Ergos with cantis, Tektro with both) I get the best braking from the drops, if you don't want to use the drops all the time, you might consider cross top levers which I found worked better than braking from the hoods.

[bikingbob]

Thanks for all your suggestions guys. I think I will start with the TLC and fit new blocks first and see what difference that makes.
Cheers
For the record these are on straights and the levers are not integrated with the shifters.

[Brucey]

you will almost certainly need new cables too. That the ones you have move is no guarantee that they are not robbing you of about 50% of your braking effort.

Be sure not to buy rubbish brake blocks, either.

cheers