Recommended Cantilever Brakes

[jonwboy]

What would you recommend as replacement cantilever brakes.
Are Tektro CR720 Cyclocross Cantilever Brakes any good?
My old ones (cheap Shimano) need replacing and are 20 years old.

Thanks

[Paulatic]

V brakes

[fatboy]

Unfashionable I know but I like Tektro Oryx. CR720s are very wide and not very powerful.

If your bike is flat bar then the V-brake option is a good one but will need new levers

[nsew]

Shimano BR-CX50 are favorably reviewed. I use the no longer produced BR-CX70. Same function, excellent regulated stopping power.

[nsew]

Have used the 720s in the past. They were decent but the Shimano CX are significantly better.

[Brucey]

shimano br-cx50/70 ( the difference is in the brake blocks which can be changed anyway) or Avid Shorty. Either of these (with straddles set lower than recommended) will give a powerful brake.

cheers

[PH]

If you want to push the boat out - Paul Component's Touring Cantis are very nice, if you want to push it out further the polished silver version is even nicer. It's the only canti brake that I've been able to set up to work as well as a v brake without frequent adjustment, though the the previous IRD Cafam model (Not the same as the current version) wasn't that far behind. On the basis that I do most of my braking with the front one, I have a PC Touring there and a Tektro 720 on the back.

[scottg]

What would you recommend as replacement cantilever brakes.
Are Tektro CR720 Cyclocross Cantilever Brakes any good?
My old ones (cheap Shimano) need replacing and are 20 years old.

Thanks

Unfortunately, cantilever performance is not just the brakes,
it has a lot to do with post width and vertical position vis a vis the rims.
Squeal is also affected by post & brake slop and where the hanger is.
So one mans good cantilever is anothers death trap.

That aside.
The bones of thousands of tourist adorn the bottom of mountain
passes all over Europe, due to cantilever brakes.
You need the hand strength of Hercules and and the geometrical
ability of Pythagoras to successfully employ cantilever brakes.

Stick with drum & coaster brakes.

[Brucey]

tektro CR710 are a reasonable budget choice. If you fight shy of the 'push the boat out' options then VO do some fancy cantis at about half the cost of the Paul's ones. Maybe they will work OK for some folk.



cheers

[robc02]

I had CR720s on my LHT and found them perfectly adequate either with Coolstop Salmon or BBB Techstop pads. However I am just over 60kg and my touring load would be about 10-15kg, so my all-up weight is less than many folks unloaded.

Despite the 720s being OK I felt an improvement would do no harm so swapped to Avid Shorty Six with BBB Techstop pads and the straddle set as low as possible. The stopping power is now significantly better and there is still good modulation.

Both types are very easy to set up.

In both cases the levers were/are Tektro R200.

[sjs]

I have a BR-CX70 on the front (following advice from Brucey on here I think) and a Suntour self-energizing thingy on the rear (just for fun, and because SJS were more or less giving them away). Both with the straddle set low, and both work very well with their as-supplied pads.

[Cyril Haearn]

Why might v-brakes be better?

[Brucey]

Why might v-brakes be better?

there are two main reasons why some folk like V brakes when converting from cantis:

1) they use an inherently simpler mechanism that uses a lower cable tension and it is so simple it is almost idiot-proof.
2) it isn't possible to convert from cantis to V brakes without getting new cables and the brakes come with brake blocks too.

So V brakes are 'inherently better' ?

Er, no. They tolerate crappy cables better than cantis do and -with a random collection of parts- it is actually quite difficult to end up with a system that has a low MA. They also have various downsides which range from tolerable to intolerable.

However the main reason why folk often report favourably having converted to Vs is (IMHO) 2) above; you get brake arms with freely moving pivots (not old part-seized ones), new cables, new brake blocks. If these things (and a decent setup) were applied to most canti setups, they'd work better too.


However in recent years shimano STIs have changed their brake leverage ratio to make it generate lower cable tension, more pull. This has had the effect of making the choice of cantilever brakes that work acceptably well with STIs rather smaller than it used to be, and furthermore those brakes that do work OK are somewhat more sensitive to setup.

cheers

[Gattonero]

Why might v-brakes be better?

V-Brakes are a lot less affected by setup, on Cantilevers there's a lot to faff with the position of the cable yoke and its length and its height and the distance of the pads to the brake pivots....while V-brakes will almost always have a fixed setup of the brake line so it goes one way only (the same wire pulls directly both brake arms) so there's only the brake pads left to adjust.
The obvious downside of V-brakes is that they give a lot less clearance around the tyre, and often is not possible to use them with mudguards.

[Lance Dopestrong]

Why might v-brakes be better?

They're not. They both have they're issues. Setting up canti's is easy, and once done they function every bit as nicely as any other rim brakes. Don't take advice from people that reckon they're awkward to set up - they've just admitted they don't know what they are doing, so why should you then take their guidance on the subject?