Trying to setup Paul’s cantilever brakes, but the left side keeps rubbing on the rim and the right side rubs on the frame. What am I doing wrong?
by iboughtarock
Trying to setup Paul’s cantilever brakes, but the left side keeps rubbing on the rim and the right side rubs on the frame. What am I doing wrong?
by iboughtarock
5 Comments
Never worked with cantilevers before. Watched park tool and looked at the stuff on the [product page](https://www.paulcomp.com/shop/components/brakes/cantilever-brakes/neo-retro/), but cannot figure it out for the life of me. Usually just deal with disc brakes on my MTB and bought this bike off Facebook and it has been a nightmare.
Does this specific cantilever setup just not work with my frame? Or am I missing the 3 hole brake spring plate? Or missing something else?
Any help is very much appreciated, thanks.
I am not familiar with this particular product, but it looks like there is too much spring tension on the right (pulling the brake into your frame), and not enough spring tension on the left (pulling the brake into the rim). Additionally, the brake cross cable itself is slack, so it’s not helping to even things out. Perhaps checking the left side, the one where it’s hitting your rim, to see if the spring is installed backward, or is somehow tensioning the wrong direction? The spring should be pushing the brake away from the wheel, like the right side. But, you need to have the cross cable tensioned and also pulling both sides evenly toward the rim. Not sure if that makes sense.
Neo-retros are some of the easiest to adjust cantis that have ever been made. Adjust the pads first so that they’re hitting the rim square, whereas now you have really extreme toe. Then you balance the spring tension/pad gap by putting a 15mm open wrench on the tension adjusters, loosening the mounting bolt a little, adjusting the tension, and re-tighten the bolt while holding the adjuster in place with the 15mm wrench still on it.
I’m not sure with these pics but maybe your wheel is not centered, solutions: [https://youtu.be/0MHBHFu4CrA?si=ulnaH0m-D5FPikUu](https://youtu.be/0MHBHFu4CrA?si=ulnaH0m-D5FPikUu).
The left pad is toed in too much. When setting up, use a dime at the rear of the pad between the rim and pad to set your toe in. Shimano had a cable holder to have the appropriate slack in the cable and the pads against the rim. I don’t recall if Paul’s had one for their brakes or not, but they were super helpful.