Feelings about an old brakeset

[radair_fr]

Hi everybody!

I found this forum about 5 months ago and now I have the retrobiking illness !!!

I was a XC competitor in the mid 90’s and I didn’t ride a MTB for about 8 years now.
I decided to modify one of my MTB and put all the retro parts I used in my racing years.

The frame I modified is a Peugeot Team Line 2000 in Columbus Genius O.R. (the frame winning the 96 World Cup) and replace the Judy SL fork for a Kona P2.

This frame was equipped with XT V’s (I think M739, the first ones) and I replaced them with Ritchy Logic cantis, Suntour XC Comp levers and Deore thumbies. The rear brakes are equipped with Scott Mathauser pads, a brake booster and a Force 40 like booster.
Front brakes are equipped with red Ritchey pads.

Today I decided to ride the bike with this new setup and found that the brake system was really… deficient! This was the first time since 1997 that I rode a bike equipped with cantis.

I noticed different things:
#1) the Force 40 booster give a “spongy” feeling => It’s a little bit like on/off
#2) the Force 40 booster is a super big shit to setup!
#3) in general cantis are harder to setup than V’s
#4) the brake power of cantis is really lower than V’s
#5) I need to do a lot of weightlifting to ride a bike equipped with a rigid fork and cantis when riding off-road…

However I think that the problem of brake power I encountered may be caused by the old brake pads (between 12 and 14 years old). Here I need an advice : if I change brake pads will I see an improvement in brake power ?

Thanks for your advice

Best regards,
Chris

 

[scant]

although it is possible to set up cantis to perform as powerfully as V brakes, its more complex. i've used force40 & never rated it.

try the change of pads change first, but you seem to have convinced yourself with the V brakes already?

 

[Carsten]

fresh koolstop eagle pads will help although the mathauser pads generally are highly regarded. at least as important however is the set up like the position of the cable splitter (triangle) and how the pads hit the rims. in general the splitter should be as low as possible so that the cable triangle is flat. ideally you want a right angle between cable and a thought line running through brake post and cable anchor point when the pads hit the rim. usually the splitter sits way too high and the triangle is too steep. most of the pulling then is transferred into the brake posts instead of rotating the brake arms towards the rim.

post a photo and we can give some more advise!

carsten