Working from home means even less exercise than I was getting when I was in Tokyo. At least there I had the walk with the commute.
So, I decided I needed to do at least some sort of exercise. For me, riding a bicycle is about the only exercise that I actually enjoy. Of course, my really nice bike that I bought is stuck in my apartment in Tokyo, so I pulled out my Miyata out of the plastic shed around the back of the house.
I hadn’t ridden it in a while, but I have the urge every once in a while so it wasn’t in totally bad shape. The years have in fact taken a bit of a toll though. I could tell the brake shoes had hardened up, so I figured I would just order some new brake shoes. Sorry, Shimano doesn’t make these any more. They have a period of 7 years that they keep parts for stuff they don’t make anymore, but I must have bought this bike in 1991 or 92 or so. (It even says “made in Japan”!)
So, after several failed attempts to make other brake pads work, and after a LOT of research, I found a set of Shimano cantilever brakes (the entire assembly, both front and rear) that I hoped I could make work.
Never having done this before, it took some doing, but I in fact got them installed and they seem to be working. In case anyone is interested, the “new” brakes I got are Shimano model BR-CT91.
Also, note that while Shimano sells a FRONT and REAR part for these, I checked around and everyone was saying that the hardware is exactly the same–only the brake shoes are swapped. Since the REAR part was out of stock, I got two FRONT assemblies and swapped out the shoes left for right, and can’t see any issues. (Honestly on this model, even the shoes appear to be interchangeable.)
