Road Bikes with Canti Brakes

[Marco]

I have recently seen some photos of road bikes with canti brakes. These are bikes that were built with road bike geos (with perhaps a slightly extended chainstay) but utilize canti brakes. Presumably this allows flexability to add wider tires when road conditions call for it. Assuming that you put good canti brakes on (such as Paul) that will have gripping strength equal to calipers, is there any other problem with doing this? It seems like a cheap way to gain additional versatility. Any insight would be appreciated including some history of what was utilized before calipers made their debut.

[pbbob]

is this what you are thinking? I just built a franken merkx from a 1990 e. merckx corsa extra tsx I haven't been using, canti braze-ons in the rear, raised the brake bridge, custom cross type fork, repainted pearl white, put some 15 yr. old dia comp canti's with salmon red pads on it, fat tires, 32-35's fit fine, bar end shifters and other assorted parts from the parts bin. could have done it cheaper with a stock fork. the motivation came from looking at an atlantis frame. this is certainly the most versatile bike I have in my stable.

[dbrk]

The greatest challenged posed to getting wider/more tire options are modern forks, though those built for cantilevers have that clearance. I'm not much of a fan of cantilevers: they adjust like crap and they are far inferior to centerpulls. There are indeed nice centerpulls and Mike Barry has the pivots for a builder to braze-on the studs that make them the best of all brakes possible. Anyway, it's a thought to use centerpulls and perhaps someday there will be a modern bike with either a steel or carbon fork that accommodates centerpulls, though you can always just bolt them on (it's better when they have the braze-ons).

There is no other downside to cantilevered road bikes. I have an "Alcyon" which is really a Marinoni built for Mike Barry/Bike Specialties/Mariposa as a second line. Nice bike, currently at paint with JB to give it paint worth, oh, about $200 more expensive than the frame and fork. Obsession knows no sanity in bicycles, btw. If I could change one thing about this bike it would be centerpull pivots for cantilever braze-ons. They aren't interchangeable, just in case you were thinkin'...

boxes of centerpulls but not enough good bikes to use them,

dbrk

[Ken Robb]

I have cantis on my 1989 Bridgestone MB3 mtn. bike and my newish Riv Allrounder. They work great--tremendous stopping power. There are more adjustments possible than side or center pull calipers. This so they can be adjusted for the great range of rims and tires they allow us to use, I guess. Sheldon Brown's site has good info on working with cantis. Sometimes I get them just right with little fuss and sometimes it takes me a few tries. The good news is you don't have to fool with them much unless you are changing rim shape/size. You can change tires as often as you like with no adjustment if the rims remamin the same. I have no experience w/centerpulls in the last 30 years but whatever Douglas says is ok with me.