Change my brakes?

[Eden]

Hey cross ladies!

The cross bike I bought came with mini V's instead of cantis. They don't have travel agents installed and I do find they have more throw than I particularly like - I have to squeeze the levers in almost all the way to the bars to stop..... (and they are already adjusted to be quite close to the rims, which means they can gunk up pretty easily)

I believe I can install cantis (I think the braze ons are all present on the frame). How's the stopping power on cantis? Would I be better off trying a travel agent first or just scoping out a set of used cantis?

thanks!

[SheFly]

I've used both on my 'cross bikes - starting with the V-brakes and moving to the cantis. I, personally, prefer the stopping power of the cantis, and they aren't quite as finicky as the V-brakes. I do feel that they are still pretty "mushy" feeling, but better than what the others felt.

My personal preference. I bet you will laso hear back from some others who like their V-brakes better.

Velogirl will likley chime in here - she's a great resource for this stuff!

SheFly

[velogirl]

bah! I'm reading this post asking myself "what' a travel agent?" see what a great resource I am?

I've always run cantis (Avids for a couple of years and then Pauls). We don't have to deal with much debris here in CA (mud, snow, leaves, etc) and rarely have a wet race. I've always found the stopping power of cantis to be more than sufficient, however I've found some brake pads are more grippy/powerful than others.

[wavedancer]

I have V-bakes on my newly-created Frankenbike. When we first changed over to the Shimano STI levers the brakes were very mushy and did not feel safely rideable. Since adding the Travel Agents they seem to work fine. They go for 15-20 dollars each, though, so it might be just as good to change over to the cantis. I wasn't able to use cantis on my frame 'cause there wasn't any room for the part that attaches to the seat tube.