Can someone see anything wrong with my set up? I was sold on these brakes being the best, but they barely stop. I have to apply good amount of force to slow down and have very little confidence in emergency situation. They are v-type all weather. My shifters are SRAM rival 2×10 from 2012 era.
by Weird-University1361
18 Comments
How old are your rims? I put some Kool Stop pads on an old bike and they work better than the old ones, but I also noticed that the braking surface on my rim is shot. I will eventually rebuild my rear wheel, but until then I am just extra careful. THankfully it’s on the rear wheel and the front is where most of the stopping force comes from.
If the brakes feel firm but do not stop the bike, try lowering the yoke closer to the tire so that the transverse link cable is at a shallower angle. This will provide more mechanical advantage and transfer more power to the brake arms.
You need to angle the pads so when you pull the cable the brakes clench or squeeze tightly on the rim. They get a better bite, kinda like toe in.
Canti brakes are so picky with set-up. I had similar wide cantis and they were even pickier than normal and didn’t play nicely with certain levers (despite being short pull). So it could be a matter of fiddling with the height of the straddle, or it may be an issue with lever/calipers not meshing well
Maybe clean the braking surface and then do some hard stops, to get the new brake pad material bedded into the brake track.
V pads are very thin. You need canti pads.
I had the same problem with canti brakes for years, and no matter how much adjusting of the yoke height, placement of the cable stop, or toeing of the brake pads I did, they always felt as you described.
I switched to mini-v brakes and the difference was night and day. I’ve got one bike with expensive Paul mini motos and another with cheap Yokozuna mini-v’s. Both work really well, and certainly much better than cantis. I do have to seriously toe-in the front brake pads to keep them from squealing like a banshee.
Things i would check:
-Rims are cleans
-No excessive toe-in, angles matching. Whole pad makes contact with moderate force
-Lightly sand off any oxidation/glazing on pad. I like to slip sandpaper between the rim and pad, gently squeeze and pull it out.
If those don’t make the difference, I would try lowering the yoke
Also deglazing the surface of the pad prior to install helps the initial bite and bed in.
Pads can only do so much. If you have high expectations or you are expecting something stronger like you’d get with disc brakes or even with v-brakes, then you need different brake calipers. These wide angle calipers (as opposed to the low profile cantis) don’t have the same mechanical advantage as a low profile cantilever, v-brake, and certainly not disc brakes.
The pros of wide cantis is that they have great modulation, consistent mechanical advantage throughout their path of travel, and great clearance for mud and muck. But they are subpar stoppers, even with good pads… enough for some people but it depends on expectations.
You may also want to consider your cantilever setup. Although the yoke height looks about right to me, for wide cantis. With the low profile type, you want the yoke as lost as possible; with the wide angle type, yours looks correct although you may want to put it even higher. There are online calculators for cantilever installation which will give you the ideal height for the most power.
That said, I don’t think setup is the problem here, nor do I think it’s the pads. I just don’t think you like how your brakes feel.
If it were my bike, I’d be running the Kool-stop salmon, not the mixed and I’d be using the Dura-Ace shaped pad which is shorter and thicker. I’m not sure that this pad and cantilever combo is the best option but I have no experience with the combo either so it’s just speculation.
Since your tires don’t look that wide and you aren’t running fenders or anything, you maybe happy with a mini-v setup. The Tektro model with 84mm arm length (or the higher end TRP 8.4) have really solid stopping power although I personally find them a bit too bitey.
If you’re willing to spend a little money, get a set of Avid shorty ultimates. They’re a game changer for cantilever brakes.
Wipe the rims down with Simple Green. They will squeal like a banshee but stop fantastic
Aren’t some of those brakes made for road pads?
Avid shorties are. I’ve found that, for example, using v brake pads on a road brake will decrease the stopping power. Why not use road pads on cantilever brakes when you can?
Bizare engeneering lol
Perhaps you should consult the Oracle:
[https://www.sheldonbrown.com/canti-trad.html](https://www.sheldonbrown.com/canti-trad.html)
Kool stops were the bees knees in the canti days
Straddle too low for wide profile brakes. I always set them up so that the cable and a straight line from the attachment point to the rim formed a tight angle.
If I didn’t know any better I’d say this looks just like an old giant tcx I traded a few years ago.