Vs or Cantis on my P7

[a.davis12]

ive been posting a lot lately it seems.
Im rebuilding my P7 with a bit of a modern flare.
Its going to be a single speed urban sort of bike that might see trails when i have time. My current debate is what brakes to run, either V's or Cantis.

I've chosen paul brakes, because i like their stuff (ive owned their hubs and have a melvin) and think its pretty well made. So it's either their touring cantis/canti levers or their motolites/love levers.

I would like to use the cantis because of the cool cable hanger thing built into the frame on the p7, but would like to use Vs because i prefer the levers and they work better.

what are everyones thoughts?

 

[velomaniac]

Depends on whether you want to stop or not

Urban riding these days needs good brakes, I'd go Vees !

Velo

 

[lewis1641]

my thought is that it depends why the bike is being built. period correct rebuild/garage queen or whatever then fit what you like. rider, fit what works. my fire mountain gets abused so has v's. having said that the rts will be a rider and thats getting cantis and my khs single speed is used almost daily and thats on cantis too!

to be honest i have only used v's in the last 6 months. i went from canti to disc. cantis used to stop me well enough back then so i'm happy enough with them now.

use whats best for you

 

[KeepItSteel]

personally, I hate to see a canti hanger on a frame thats not being used.

if you spend ages fiddling with the spring tensions etc then you should be able to set up canti's to easily work well enough.
However,there is also strength in the other opinions that if the bike is getting used and abused alot then fit what works best.

It just my opinion, you've got a nice frame, would be nice to see it looking right.

 

[FairfaxPat]

The reason why the industry went from Canti's to V's was they worked much better-so if you want really good brakes use the V's-if you want to look at it a lot and think they look nicer, then use the Cant's.

 

[a.davis12]

im so bloody indecisive.
Im going to build a frankenbike to ride for a while then just see what happens.

 

[al]

Every couple of years i build a bike with cantis, because nothing looks better than fancy cantis?

The thing is every time i do i think why the hell did i do that? And anyway i'm pretty enough without jewelry on my bike!!


Al.

 

[Mr Panda]

Try canti's 1st if you have the parts. Those P7 canti hangers are rather nice on the nickel frame

 

[PurpleFrog]

Depends on whether you want to stop or not

Urban riding these days needs good brakes, I'd go Vees !

Velo

In what way are vees better than cantis for the road? Either will lock the wheels with trivial effort, unless you're a total feeb. Vees have an advantage offroad if you're doing an incredible amount of braking, so you might run out of hand strength - maybe, theoretically... really they're just easier to adjust. Your brakepads and tyres - now they will have an influence on urban stopping.

(Ex-San Francisco bike messenger here - I'm awful on derailer compatibility etc, but I know about urban stopping, believe me!)

 

[PurpleFrog]

The reason why the industry went from Canti's to V's was they worked much better-so if you want really good brakes use the V's-if you want to look at it a lot and think

Once the wheels are locked, they're locked (and you're in a braking skid). Canti's provide this much power with ease. The mech on V's provides more mechanical advantage... but even offroad, this wasn't really the reason for the change. V's had to paired with new lower MA levers to bring them back to canti levels of braking power, otherwise there would have been too little modulation. The real benefit of v's is that their adjustment is more nearly idiot-proof than old school cantis - but people don't like being told they're idiots, so the sexier "More braking power!" pitch was used and the modified levers not mentioned.

If I was building a bike like the OP's I'd go with whatever I had the nicer looking parts lying around for.