Calculating Mechanical Advantage of Cantilever Brakes

[@SiopaoSauc3]

This video is gold. Also bonus for using fine writing instruments such as the fountain pen and the Bic ballpoint.

[@ГеннадийРутковский]

да по твоему ролику я понял што нужно быть инженером механиком что бы настроить тормоза хотя катаю уже 60 лет -- БРАВО .

[@icenijohn2]

I was a service manager in bike shops for fifteen years, and during that time and all the other decades I've worked on my own bikes' cantilever brakes I applied some simple rules that work well on almost any canti brakes. 1) Keep the pulling cable at 90 degrees to the brake arm for maximum efficiency (this doesn't work on old Mafac-style stick-out-in-the-breeze brakes, but they're a flawed design). This angle may be slightly varied to change the subjective feel of the brakes to suit individual customers' preferences, and to equalize the feel of front and rear brakes to compensate for longer cable runs to the rear (especially useful on tandems). 2) Position the pads as close as possible to the arms for minimum flex and squeal. 3) Shim the brake pivots (even the internal pivots on Deore low-profile cantis) with 0.004" brass shim stock to ensure they pivot smoothly with absolutely no slop or play. 4) Always use the best quality smooth-drawn inner cables and lined housing, grind the housing ends flat and use tight-fitting ferrules, and run cables with as smooth radius bends as possible. 5) Use different pads front and rear to obtain the best bite and feel to the brakes: I do this for my car, so why not also for my bikes? If you do this, your canti brakes will work just fine. It ain't rocket surgery! I never calculated theoretical geometries, but just paid attention to sometimes-overlooked details. I recently got back from a short tour from Albuquerque NM to Flagstaff AZ on my road touring bike, and even with it weighing over 80 lbs loaded I never felt I needed more braking power from its old Deore LX cantis that I've set up as described here.

[@KarlosEPM]

I also use different setups for the front and rear brakes of my bicycle. That way they feel equally powerful (lock-up with same travel and force) and have equal modulation. I wish I knew how to shim the brakes 😅

[@michaelmagee6428]

Great advice on set up! Thanks! I just set up an old Fuji Mt Fuji Ltd mtb with STI levers and cantis. The original black pads (new to this build, but very hard) weren't stopping well, so I changed them to the Kool-Stop salmon brake pads, front and rear. Made the grip so much nicer. Yes the pads will wear faster, but the braking modulation is so much better. New cables definiteiy make a huge difference too. I was surprised to see how well STI levers worked with cantis. The build is one of the coolest bikes I've ever had. Cantis can be REALLY good brakes when set up well.

[@黄辰旭]

The v brake anayizing is simple, just uaing the full length as long arm and using the the brake pad position as the short arm, and long arm length divided by short arm length is the leverage ratio.

[@shonesymike4773]

Кантиливер су добре кочнице....Мало захтевају више стрпљења око намештања.

[@himatic7]

This has big implications for brake 'feel'. Increasing mechanical advantage = progressive braking and better pad clearance.

[@genernator]

Lose the cantis and get mini V's. Game over.

[@pigeonkill]

Wow this rules!!

[@jonaslo6011]

If I got this right, you get more braking power from low profile cantis by moving the pads all the way inward ("large gap between the brake arm and the rim") and vice versa for high profile ones? can someone confirm this?

[@chadkline4268]

They are the best brakes in snow+ice conditions because of their simplicity. They are easy to wipe off and make functional. They are the best brakes period. Every other system is more trouble. We use to call them center pull in the 80s. For the avg Joe, there was only side pull and center pull.

[@VAMIRACING]

the disc brakes have been invented because people found the math behind cantilever brakes so tedious

[@dariusjackelson9915]

Set up cantilever brakes perfectly and they work just fine. With V-brakes, just back them off until they don't throw you over the handlebars and they work just fine.

[@matthewlewis9356]

I prefer v brakes uses less cable and more aggressive response

[@Solarsystem50]

good stuff, now we need to do the math with V brakes.

[@Clichefotos]

Will be fantastic know V mechanical advantage

[@oreocarlton3343]

Horrible modulation doe...

[@danc2014]

Note v brakes need different brake levers than cantilever, because the pull length needed for v brakes to work are larger than cantievers.

[@duroxkilo]

@@danc2014 yes that is correct.. without the proper levers V-brakes under-perform. there is a component called "travel agent" that increases cable pull. it's basically a pulley..

[@braggadoceniam]

5:23 how can you say that FB = Fw1 + Fw2 when these forces are not on the same axis? I think it should be FB = sin Ɣ * Fw1 + sin Ɣ* Fw2 = 2 * sin Ɣ * Fw1

[@Metal-Possum]

Don't tell Jan Heine (Rene Herse) that centrepulls are trash. :P Cantilevers have existed for a long time though, 1930's I believe with brands such as Resilion.

[@Bruceillest101]

Working on cantilever brakes suckssss.

[@n2n8sda]

Awesome video. I've never had a problem wtih canti-lever brakes if they are setup properly. It isn't voodoo either to get them set up correctly so perhaps some of the people who are having so much trouble have contaminated braking surfaces and / or poor old hardened brake shoes especially if they are working on an older bicycle.

[@WSBR707]

second pic is of a closed brake.

[@glenzigdan]

Cool video! I work on canti's every day and love it!

[@drrrw]

Thank you for this. I was really stoke on converting my vintage suntour to disk in the rear cause maybe people going disk brakes would mean that older tech in inferior in the sense not that great for today. Now do the mechanical advantage of disk brakes and compare the two. Thanks.

[@unciclistaenbuenosaires8287]

If you want to improove the breaking power of cantilever oe v brakes just buy the vbrake power boosters. Those make the bike frame stiffer, wich means more braking power

[@futureshock7425]

I have a pair on my old schwinn crosscut they work absolutely great of set up right and will stop an elephant

[@roncooke2188]

There would be 3% different if heavy or snow

[@DYFENZO]

thank you for making this video

[@KarlosEPM]

Good vid! Thanks!

[@kellymckenzie4865]

Problem with cantilevers is that people still have to do math to make them work

[@budiwidodo7764]

why it is sin beta, should be sin alpha ?

[@frakafrocka]

this is awesome thank you

[@ShawnStradamus520]

Brilliant! 🌞🙏🏽

[@wwcab36]

good good thank you.

[@technodrone313]

lol v brakes are objectively trash? cept you see those on modern bikes still but who makes cantilever? not any road bikes anymore.

[@jinw8974]

The problem is that they look messy.

[@Digital_Fuzz]

Useless calculations. There is one simple rule - force not appear from nowhere. Simply measure the relation of brake lever and pads movement and you clearly get the strongest ones. For stupid ones: more cable you pull - less force you need to gain the same braking power.

[@lilbilly4078]

This video is literally him calculating the relation of the brake lever to the pads. Its not his fault you don't understand them lmao. Say hi to r/iamverysmart

[@Digital_Fuzz]

​@@lilbilly4078 Sure man, I learned eng for ~ 4 months in childhood and to be honest understand nothing. But saw a lot of trash sicosinusoidal nubmbers math shit in this vid so my memories triggered when I was young and simply beating nerds in the school when they calculating faster than me. That's why I wrote this angry comment. And hi to all nerds in your thread, luckly they weren't in my class so it's don't need to say sorry for me.