New Avid Shorty canti brakes

[jpw]

http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/interbike-new-brakes-from-the-hive-and-avid-23311

Look quite nice, and with ti hardware, toe-in pads and barrel adjustment for straddle wire tension. Yummy.

[roguedog]

oh yeah. pretty...

[Marcusaurelius]

I wonder if they squeal less than the older ones? (I always had to replace the the stock pads with kool stops)

[Steve in SLO]

Mighty purty.
They'll come with Swiss Stop pads as standard equipment, per the text. Might not need to swap them out.

[Acotts]

Anyone have issues with spending 200 bones on a Canti brakes?

I do.

Canti brakes suck. Always have and always will. We are just spending huge $$ for brakes that suck less. Its just silly that the sport of Cross kept those things from going away for good.

i mean, look at MTBs. Canti were replaced by V-brakes in the early 80's. (And then disks and now hydrolic disks.) These brakes aren't even 1985 technology. We surpassed this tech three generation ago. You can buy bikes at walmart for $70 that have better stopping power and modulation in wet, muddy conditions than half the bikes have in any given cross race.

And yes, i know how to adjust my brakes. My bike stops well enough. Just not as well as my road bike, my MTB, or my fixed gear with a single $5 Tektro brake. I'm all for leave it alone if it works, but this is one carry-over that is expensive and does not work.

But that is just me.

End Canti's Suck rant.

Love,
Andrew

[Kines]

Anyone have issues with spending 200 bones on a Canti brakes?

I do.

Canti brakes suck. Always have and always will. We are just spending huge $$ for brakes that suck less. Its just silly that the sport of Cross kept those things from going away for good.

i mean, look at MTBs. Canti were replaced by V-brakes in the early 80's. (And then disks and now hydrolic disks.) These brakes aren't even 1985 technology. We surpassed this tech three generation ago. You can buy bikes at walmart for $70 that have better stopping power and modulation in wet, muddy conditions than half the bikes have in any given cross race.

And yes, i know how to adjust my brakes. My bike stops well enough. Just not as well as my road bike, my MTB, or my fixed gear with a single $5 Tektro brake. I'm all for leave it alone if it works, but this is one carry-over that is expensive and does not work.

But that is just me.

End Canti's Suck rant.

Love,
Andrew

I agree, except.... either I was way behind or your time scale is off a little cuz i don't recall having the option to use v-brakes until early 90s. Early 80s? I think you're thinking of u-brakes maybe?

OK someone go ahead and prove me wrong. I'm no bike history professor, afterall.

KN

[Acotts]

I agree, except.... either I was way behind or your time scale is off a little cuz i don't recall having the option to use v-brakes until early 90s. Early 80s? I think you're thinking of u-brakes maybe?

OK someone go ahead and prove me wrong. I'm no bike history professor, afterall.

KN

Im only 28, so I am no historian. SO my timeline could be totally off. I just remember being 10 or 11 on a huffy MTB with Cantis and my buddy got a new Schwinn with brakes that worked. I just assumed they were V-brakes. They could have been U-brakes, though.

I was on BMX shortly thereafter and forgot all about breaks until i begun playing with my CX bike and all the bad memories returned.

[sg8357]

http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/interbike-new-brakes-from-the-hive-and-avid-23311

Look quite nice, and with ti hardware, toe-in pads and barrel adjustment for straddle wire tension. Yummy.

No Ti, but the rest is there, in cheesy anodized gold.
http://www.velo-orange.com/grcrucabr.html

Yes, cantis don't feel like dual pivots, but if can get over the feel of medium MA
brakes, they work well. I have them on my Ebisu AP.

[Acotts]

What does medium MA mean?

BTW, I know its not PRO, but my next cx bike is gonna have disks.

-a


No Ti, but the rest is there, in cheesy anodized gold.
http://www.velo-orange.com/grcrucabr.html

Yes, cantis don't feel like dual pivots, but if can get over the feel of medium MA
brakes, they work well. I have them on my Ebisu AP.

[jpw]

Anyone have issues with spending 200 bones on a Canti brakes?

I do.

Canti brakes suck. Always have and always will. We are just spending huge $$ for brakes that suck less. Its just silly that the sport of Cross kept those things from going away for good.

i mean, look at MTBs. Canti were replaced by V-brakes in the early 80's. (And then disks and now hydrolic disks.) These brakes aren't even 1985 technology. We surpassed this tech three generation ago. You can buy bikes at walmart for $70 that have better stopping power and modulation in wet, muddy conditions than half the bikes have in any given cross race.

And yes, i know how to adjust my brakes. My bike stops well enough. Just not as well as my road bike, my MTB, or my fixed gear with a single $5 Tektro brake. I'm all for leave it alone if it works, but this is one carry-over that is expensive and does not work.

But that is just me.

End Canti's Suck rant.

Love,
Andrew

So you're a hydroholic are ya? I'd stay off it, you're balls might fall off :-)

MA - mechanical advantage.

[dannyg1]

I'm of the 'Cani's don't suck' school. I can easily lock the wheels, both front and rear, on my Gran Compe 981 equipped bike and though the action is 'spongier' than most of the other brake styles, I find them easier to modulate. They're downright forgiving of panicky moments and get the job done when the danger turns out to be real.

I'm in NYC BTW.

[gdw]

Acotts,
No offense guy but never judge a family of components based upon your experiences with a cheap Huffy. A well setup cantilever brake paired with the right lever is very powerful and modulates quite well. Don't agree, try a set of the old CNC'ed Avid Speed Dials with some XT or XTR low profile cantis.

Road bike levers with built in shifting mechanisms are why performance is spotty on cross bikes. STI/Ergo, etc levers are designed to work with road brakes not cantilevers. Combine them with a brake designed to work in muddy conditions without packing up and you have marginal performance compared to v's or disks. That said, I totally agree with you that the most recent offerings are way overpriced.

[Acotts]

I hear you. No offense taken at all. In fact, I agree with you. I should also say that I am kinda a crappy cxer.

And just to clarify, I have Avid shorty 6 on the rear and Pauls "I dunno it doesn't have a name on it" on the front of my Cross bike hooked up to 6600 Ultegra levers. So I am not just basing this on the ol' huffy. I spent a long time fiddling with my brakes. I can modulate speed and I can lock my wheels. It doesn't squeal like a pig and my fork does not shudder too much(if at all). They are functional. But that is it. Functional. We can do better folks! This level of functionality is not even the status quo for bike parts nowadays. Even the cheapest road or MTB parts function better than this.

With the pauls, I am really just modulating how much squish I want to apply. The avids are a bit more all or nothing. This might be the whole MA bit. I think we can do better. i think there was a reason that you cant find a MTB that uses cantis anymore. Better options were available 20 years ago.

It would be one thing if they sucked and they were cheap (which is how I bet it all started). But that is not the case. The brakes are more expensive, less available, and you have to spend hours adjusting them just to make them okay enough.

Finally, you say Cantis aren't made to work with STI, but that is what 99% of us are using. That alone is reason to change.

I dont want test out new equipment to find just the right levers, with just the right cantis, with just the right pads. Thats not me. I want to throw some 105s I got from the classifieds, crush some cat 4s, and not think about it.

Fiddling with bike parts is for the off season. Its race season.

[Acotts]

One last thing, disks look awesome. Xbikes with disks look like war machine!

(ducking)....