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Cantilever brakes were the undisputed king of stoppers up until V-brakes of the late 90′s (long arm cantilevers) and the discs of today. For many applications they are still the best choice, but unlike a decade or so ago relatively few models are currently available new. The Avid Shorty 6 Cantilever is one of the more popular choices out there at about $40 per wheel and has become nearly standard equipment on off the shelf ‘cross bikes. Avid has recently updated the Shorty for 2009 – this review is of the pictured previous model design, just in time for it not to be available anymore.
In this day and age, why cantilevers? While dual-pivot road caliper brakes are plenty powerful for the road, and v-brakes and discs outperform cantilevers in most off-road applications the choices narrow when drop bars and integrated shift/brake levers come into play and tire/mud clearance becomes important. Due to differences in cable pull and mechanical advantage, v-brakes and most cable-actuated discs do not work properly with drop bar brake levers without a pulley cable-doubler hack, and even then in my experience do not perform optimally. For the balance of braking power, mud/tire/fender clearance, and drop bar lever compatibility there is nothing comparable to a good cantilever brake. Touring applications further highlight cantilever brake use as racks can be a bear to mount “around” disc brake calipers, and in far off places chances are you can find a cantilever brake shoe and people who can work on them. The main downfall of cantilever brakes is their touchy setup. There are so many variables involved that even skilled home mechanics can find setup a daunting chore.
The Avid Shorty 6 has a few features to make setup easier, namely independent left and right spring adjustment for ease of centering and cartridge brake pads with threaded studs and spherical washers to make pad-to-rim adjustments a one-wrench affair, easing toe-in and pad replacement. The brake arms themselves are forged aluminum with quality linear return springs that after two years of use still provide the snappy return of day one. The only quibble I have with the brakes as packaged is the straddle cable and yoke – I replaced each with the pictured Tektro version as I prefer to be able to lock in my straddle cable adjustment.
In terms of performance the Shorty 6 works admirably save for being loud and prone to brake squeal. All cantilevers suffer from squeal at one time or another, but I find the Shorty 6 to be particularly hard to silence for some reason. Toe’d in or not, even when I manage to quiet these brakes the squeal tend to resurface later. I’ve simply learned to live with the noise, adjusting the pads just so when it gets to be more than I can stand. All in all the Avid Shorty 6 is a fine cantilever brake and I expect the 2009 version to work just as well, if not better. Avid has a long history atop the rim-brake food chain with the latest Shorty brakes reaping the benefits of such a run.
If they were still available, centerpulls worked really good in the olden days.
The squeal is due to the arms and the mount that holds them together with the spring. No matter how hard you tighten them down to the canti stud, there’s still a touch of wiggle room that you can’t dial out, and this allows the pad to contact the rim flatter than the toe in you set them up with.It would be huge to be able to work on the pieces of the arms seperately to dial in the fit.
Still though, the ease of set up and overall performance makes ‘em bangers for the buckers.
The Avid Shortys ship with a LINK WIRE. Not a “straddle” cable.
The link wire negates any centering of the transverse cable. However, a traditional straddle cable set-up (like you have pictured) does provide more adjustment options. (if you aren’t careful the option to decrease brake performance!)
I’ve managed to dramatically reduce the amount of brake squeal by switching to Kool-Stop brake pads. I found the dual-compound ‘Mtn Pad” to be particularly effective. The Eagle IIs have also worked well– I’m currently using the black pads and some small amount of squeal (in cold wet conditions) has returned. I plan on switching to the “salmon” colored Eagle IIs soon.
I used these for a quick minute before getting KORE. I actually thought these where easier to get silent then the KORE and blew Spookys out of the water in every way (they stopped). The problem I ended up with was, the pads where too far back and could not spring all the way open without hitting my fork legs. This meant I had to deflate front tire to get the wheel off. All in all, and I thought they performed well and where the easiest brakes to work on (Toe ‘em way in).
I’ve had the same problem as Morgan with the pads not being able to clear a fat tire without deflating…and haven’t really found a solution.
Avid definitely knows how to make a great canti that is properly adjustable…does anyone remember their “Tri-Align” cantis from the early/mid-90s? Those were the bomb.
Personally, I think that the tektro oryx are a much better canti for the money, they are even cheaper than the avids as well. If I weren’t going to throw down the cash for paul’s canti’s I would get the oryx over the avids.
I hear you about travel agents being a pain in the ass, but if you’re building up a singlespeed or are happy with bar-end shifters, Tektro’s RL520 drop-bar v-brake levers are phenomenal.
I second the recomendation of Tektro Oryx. I switched from the Avid’s due to the excessive squeal (no amount of toeing fixed it). No noise from the Oryx and they will stop you. Haven’t tried Spookys or Kore.
Nice article!
But I still can’t figure out why disc brakes were banned for cyclocross racing?