Hi all, I just picked up a second hand cross bike with some trp euro cantilever brake on it. They don’t stop to well so just wondering what are some good pads to get for it ? The levers are ultegra from a road bike should they be fine ? Just read somewhere that they should be proper cross levers To work correctly is this right ?
Cheers

Swiss Stop pads come in a range of compounds for different conditions and are the best.

Levers should be fine for cantis.

Google Sheldon Browns site on how to set the straddle cable up.

Cheers I will do, good news about the leavers too

And good incompressible cable outers are very important if you want cantis to work their best.

TBF cantis are as much about expectation setup as brake setup- at their very best, they’re OK but if you’re used to modern mtb brakes most canti setups aren’t going to impress. It’s part of the fun. Not that it’s not worth trying to improve them of course.

I switched mine to cheap Tektro BMX mini-vs, which even with standard pads worked better than most cantis I’ve tried. Slight loss of mud/mudguard clearance which could be an issue for some though, and you need to be careful to get a combination of parts that works. Oh and people say they wear rims faster, but I think that’s mostly because they actually apply some friction…

Second the Swisstops, very good pads. I used to use green.

Also second that cants are okay at best and getting them to be best is a pain as it all depends on yoke length and then matching that to the feel you like.

Mini Vs work a lot better but are more on/off which is not good for narrow tyres off road. (and you need mini Vs if you want to use the road levers)

A move to discs on MTB and then CX was done for a reason

Flex in the system is the villain.

It sucks up cable pull and it is only once all the flexy components are fully flexed that there’s cable pull for your actual braking.

I suspect how good (or bad) cantis are has a lot to do with how much your frame or fork flexes when the cantis are applied.

If you look at the light stays and fork legs on a CX type bike it’s no wonder it’s hard to make them work. A lot of the cable pull is used up just flexing them apart which is probably why a brake with more cable pull like a V-brake works better.

I remember wondering if it would be worth using reinforcement (booster?) like the Magura hydraulics used, but then realised it was simpler to just use the Maguras. 🙂

Really good brake outers make difference, as they do with any cable brake.

Many dropbar road levers also had more flex than I like, and that also sucks up cable pull too. (However I haven’t experience of any of the latest ones so whether that still applies, I do not know)

And then there’s the black art of getting the straddle cable just right. 🙂

Looks like I’m in for a bit of fun here

I reckon I’ve got the perfect canti setup. TRP canti’s with travel agents, Kool Stop salmon pads and decent cables. It’s still crap but it’s the best setup I’ve used.

Mini Vs might be a good option then, before I but pads for the cantilevers. And recommendations ? Don’t want to spend to much but would like a bit of quality.

Cheers

Tektro Mini-Vs work well and are cheap. The only problem is that you lose so much mud clearance with Mini-Vs that you really need to bear in mind your usage. If you have a single bike and are going to race it through the winter they may not be the best choice.
Kool-Stop salmons work well in cantis.

Just saw the tektros, very good price and the reviews seem good as well

Lots of good advice up there. I found mini vees had limited mud clearance and created problems.

I got best performance when I realized I could fit mtb vee brake pads to my brakes. You will need to buy whole new brake blocks (rubber and cartridge holder/bolt) but that gave me enough stopping power for most riding as long as you don’t expect disc performance.

Tektro Mini-Vs here. I’ve fitted a Travel Agent to the front as well. I don’t race Cross but I do go off road but not in deep mud (yet) and have no problems with clearance.
Like other people said, the brakes still don’t really work but it’s better than cantis. I don’t know how I managed two weeks in Chamonix in ’95 on an Orange Clockwork with canti brakes I really don’t.. 😯

YMMV on mud clearance but for me the mini Vs were still more open than the frame and forks so most of the time the only thing that was really different was the cross cable. But sometimes mud with real substance could be a problem, very rarely on the front but sometimes on the back as it funnelled slightly.

I reckon that’d mostly affect racing though as those are pretty awful riding conditions that you’d generally avoid anyway, but it could definitely be a consideration. But for me a worthy compromise.

I commute to work on a cx bike and over the last 8 years I’ve tried quite a few different brakesets.

* The bike came with avid shorty’s – not very good
* Frogglegs – much better than the shorty’s but a bit of a faff to set up
* Mini v’s with rollarmajig thing – better but the front never felt right
* avid shorty ultimate – better again and worth the money until I got the ones below
* Shimano Ultegra CX70 – by far the best I’ve used and I’ll be sticking with these. Work well dry or wet.

er I think that’s it.

I’ve always run swisstop pads when I’ve been running cartridge pads

I just order a set of the mini vees. £25 front and back posted so very happy with that. I think for the few times mud could be a problem its worth it for the better braking I’ll have for the 95% of the time. Thanks for all the advice crew

I fitted Travel Agents and normal V-brakes #stoppies 🙂

Should the mini vees go on quiet easily? With the brake cable coming from the Middle on the drop bars in front of the stem will that just stay bare and pull over to the side where the vees are ? Or will I need a few bits and pieces.

Different bits work with different setups. Mine was 10-speed 105 shifters and there was a Tektro that’s a 100% painless bolt-on, it just needed an inline cable adjuster, and if I wanted the pads close to the rim it needed a little cable adjust to get the wheel out. Not quite factory fit because of that, but for everything else it felt like it was designed that way. But different years of brifters have different brake cable pull.

Cheers Northwind, yeah I should be similar with ultegra shifters and the same tektro brakes.
Thanks again