Cantilever brake set up

The Oryx are ok, better blocks will help. They don't really work that well with drop levers.

The tekto's or old style long arm cantilevers are better. I am moving over to them.

BTW, are frog legs not the same design as Oryx?

thanks everyone. that's my birthday sorted then

To adjusted the brake easily, put credit card inbetween pad and rims, close the brake arm making sure it's in contact with the rims, then tighten brake cable.

quickest and easiest way to adjust cantilever.

Swiss stop, their pads are superb.

+1, I had the green viking ones on my cross bike until last week, no complaints and they seem to last for ever, barely any wear.

Frogglegs are good too, especially for the price. I think Planet-X have them on sale currently.

I swapped my CR520s (with swiss stop pads) for the frogglegs with the TRP pads. I think the frogglegs are only a tiny bit more powerful (though both are pretty woeful in general run through ergos levers), but the biggest advantage I've noticed so far is that the narrower profile means I knock them less in races, but that's probably not such a concern on a touring bike.

Went and got some Condor cantilevers. Just need to sort cabling out. I can tell already that they'll be a huge improvement.

Here's a question - how wide apart are cantilever brake bosses supposed to be? If I remember my old MTBs correctly, they were about 75mm front and rear... I've recently bought a touring frame where the studs have been retrofitted and the fronts are only 50mm apart. Is that gonna be a problem?

It depends on the bike. If the frame designer / frame builder is expecting a wide rim the bosses need to be further apart than if they are expecting a narrow rim.

update: brakes sorted, no more squeal. In the words of Shakin' Stevens: lovely stuff