Gravelkings and cantilevers. Ugh.
I will invite him here. PS @Orc his girlfriend emailed you about a rack 
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Uh, oh, I never got it. Did it bounce back to her, or just vanish?
guess it vanished. I’ll let 'em know.
I’ve was reading his stuff on Jalopnik for years. I sort of gave up on gawker sites after they killed the politics tho.
gawker has been dead for years but I still read it because nothing else really fills that hole for me
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Yeah I’m a big fan of Raph’s writing and jalop in general
Jalop has one of the least toxic open access car oriented comment sections on a widely read site by a country mile.
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Early '80s touring bikes are great, you’re just stuck with using period correct smooth post cantis on them and everyone has to learn this the hard way.
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Or saw off the canti posts and use those long reach nutted tektros, way better braking.
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I think we talked about this on oldtärck but my favorite way to set up vntg cantis is to ditch the straddle, use rear cable hanger to make a link wire, and install a ball bearing roller at the crown. ATMO it makes it act/feel more like a mini-V brake. I think some other people here might have tried but I never heard back so maybe it only works for me.
A mildly interesting feature of this setup is you can put it on the back of the fork without any clearance problems. Tie it together with a U-brace and it becomes a super effective rim brake
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I’m sort of interested in what you’re saying here, but it’s kind of hard to see from the pictures, and I’m actually more interested in NEVER USING CANTI BRAKES EVER AGAIN.
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whatever he chooses gets flipped on the side.
Also acceptable
a deal is a deal
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Aw shit that’s my bike!
I was up till midnight thirty the night before a ride this weekend installing and adjusting a single shimano cx50 on the front of this thing–picked up a $30 ziplock bag full of canti parts including the aforementioned $10 CX50. Raced to Bike Hab on vandy minutes before closing (a thank you again if anyone is reading this from the service dept) to nab a VERY expensive straddle cable I still don’t have the heart to trim (it’s tucked away into a cutout in my front rack) and some salmon kool stop thinlines.
I re-greased the canti posts with a can of ford-mercury-lincoln axle grease I had around, used some thread locker I had picked up for an ultimately botched repair of a seized praktica lens. Was a pain because every nut and bolt interfered juuuust so with my front rack.
Went to bed before I had a chance to test it, but took the bike down the stairs in the early morning to take it around the block. I wasn’t expecting it to be any better, and sort of figured I would be fixing the flat on my girlfriend’s straggler instead and borrowing that. Grabbed full front brake thinking it’d still be ass. Almost sent me over the handlebars! Lifted the back wheel off the ground. Lever felt great and light, too.
Survived 30-40 miles that day, including some nice steep mud/gravel descents. Still have to futz with the derailleur a bit as the bike doesn’t love being in the next-to-lowest gear (only that one) but very happy with it. Gonna order another CX50 and be jammin.
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- if you’re gonna be among the canti squealing chatters, Shimano canti brakes are the best, and cheap as heck.
- good job getting it on there and adjusted
- post your bike in the new folx thread, new person, for some gentle hazing until things go horribly off track and there’s suddenly 50 comments discussing the ethics of tipping or the benefits of various denim cleaning practices
The Nü Nü Nü People Thread - Your first post goes here
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Post yr bike noob
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This makes me unreasonably happy.
I’ve enjoyed your writing on Jalopnik.