On Thursday, 11, 2002, at 09:12AM, <REClassicBikes@aol.com> wrote:
>Resillion did indeed bring the first cantilever brakes to the mass market, in
>the 1920s. They were considered so much better than every other brake
>available that the CTC gave them a special award for them.
>
>They are devilishly hard to set up, but work well once done.
Time for a little story. The first time I ever saw these brakes was on a Raleigh tandem from the mid-30s. I was working for The Bikesmith in Seattle and Val said "Have you ever worked on those?" I responded, "Nope" To which he said, "They want to pick it up tomorrow" and walked away.
Val is one of those trial by fire teachers and was more than willing to pay people to figure it out. Some people can't work under those conditions, I thrive in them. After about 4 hours and making cables and pads to work and much cursing and a lunch time pint of local microbrew it was done. The test ride proved quite nice and everything worked well and after the final inspection everything was great. When the customers came to pick the bike up they were quite happy and couldn't remember when the brakes had worked so well. After all the frustration to make them work it was well worth having a happy customer. After this experience I have a soft spot for Resillion brakes and someday I have a set and build a frame to fit them.
enjoy,
Brandon"monkeyman"Ives
SB, CA