Cantilevers Made Easy
Cantilevers are pretty intimidating to work on. There is twice as many cables to manage and an infinite number of ways to set it up incorrectly. Most explanations involve math 🙂 Fear not! Finally an English major safe visual explanation of how to set up cantilevers for best performance.
Russ,
Great information on set-up on canti’s – well done.
Some additional information about brake levers:
Long-pull brake levers have a greater distance between the point at which the lever pivots and the end of the cable. This means that they pull more cable when you move the lever. They work for V-brakes and long-pull mechanical disc brakes. Tektro RL520 long pull brake levers (drop bar levers) work best for V-brakes on a drop bar set-up.
Short pull brake levers have less distance between the pivot and the end of the cable, so they pull less cable when you move the lever. They work for road caliper brakes and for cantilever brakes. Most drop bar brake levers are short pull – some flat bar brake levers are too.
Paul Components has some good information about short vs. long pull levers on their website.
If mud clearance is not a concern – Paul Minimoto’s are a great alternative to a traditional cantilever brakes and work well with short pull brake levers. Very easy to set-up and have great feel and stopping power. We run them on our Bike Friday Tandem Twos-day and they are really nice.