Canti / V brakes changed to Calipers - why ?

[Andy in Germany]

I thought canti and v brakes were same pull. Different from mini V and calipers which are the same?🤔

Not quite: I've got away with having canti levers with V-brakes on my own bike as a short term stop gap: they feel squishy they do work; just. V levers on cantis are ineffective and just about polish the wheel rims.

 

[Andy in Germany]

There are different levels of easy and hard. I have set up a few thousand sets of brakes over the years and there is no doubt that, in our workshop, the ones people generally have more trouble in getting just right are cantis.

I can set up all the brake types OK, but getting cantis does require a bit more effort with getting them even and the straddle wire height just right

That's about what we find in our workshop too. As our job is selling bikes, and my lads are largely unqualified, we would often take the cantis off when it was possible, and swap them for V-Brakes. We have big boxes full of V-brakes and levers, and it was often quicker to swap the system than faff about setting up cantis.

 

[T4tomo]

I never understood the hatred for cantilever brakes. Set up properly, they are much better than calliper brakes in my experience.

If you don't know how to set them up, learn, or get someone else to do it, just like any other aspect of maintenance.

Yes its like saying all disc brakes are useless based on some cheap mechanical single piston disc brakes with cheap pads in them.

A decent set of modern canti's aren't difficult to set-up, and teamed with good blocks are a very good option. Some old / vintage canti's are not.