I'm mechanically competent, and have various types of brakes. I rather
think I know how to set up cantis properly - and I have Ballantine and
access to Barnett's to be super-sure. My comments were based on
practical observation rather than theory:
When initially setting up, Weinmann centrepulls don't normally need to
be adjusted for toe-in, in/out distance, centreing or bridge cable
length, unlike cantis. After a few thousand miles you swap them round
or turn them over, that's it. V-brakes are rare on road-bikes, but
definitely need less maintenance than cantis on an ATB, pivot point
distances notwithstanding. Perhaps our different experience is due to
different canti designs - the arm angle can make a difference to
centring problems for example.
I find that when I 'twiddle' canti cables to adjust for wear (rapidish
in the high traffic-light density area where I live), I usually end up
adjusting the blocks at the same time. I repeat, that my personal
experience is that close-clearance Weinmann Vainqueurs are easily
powerful enough for a loaded road-bike (11st plus average cargos and
occasional heavy shopping), and they need barely any adjustment at all.
I've toured on them with no worries at all. I wasn't comparing them
with dual pivot sidepulls - these are at least as powerful, and more
sensitive, I find. DP sidepulls are actually quite similar to
centrepulls in design, but couldn't fit on most of my centrepull bikes,
with their big clearances and day tour/MA40 type rims.
O.
Simon Brooke said:in message <[email hidden]>,
grannyhalfstep (') said:Must plug centrepull brakes here: (e.g. Weinmann Vainqueurs, Mafacs).
Better than sidepulls and cantis for roadbikes. Reliable, stay centred,
powerful, versatile reach, adjust once a year. Cons: would foul canti
mounting bosses, not suitable for ATBs.Don't agree. Can't speak for the Mafacs which may be all right; there's
nothing wrong with the essential design, and if reasonably well
engineered out of reasonable quality material they should work. But I
used Weinmann centrepulls for about twenty years over many tens of
thousands of miles before I could afford anything better (and still have
one bike with them on), and my view is that they can only be considered
powerful when compared to Weinmann sidepull callipers, which are
completely useless.But Weinmann centrepulls are fairly useless. I agree that they're /very/
easy to adjust, and relatively low maintenance - it was for their ease
of adjustment that I used to use them. But nothing like as good as a
good quality dual pivot calliper.I suppose they're OK if you live in fairly flat country and don't carry
much weight on the bike - they are /extremely/ easy to set up.--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/Due to financial constraints, the light at the end of the tunnel
has been switched off.