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That's very helpful, thank you very much. Has the Panasonic from the start of the thread changed at all...?!
si_mon628-
Only a little. We changed the seat, and the bars have changed twice i think, but nothing major, just a little more rise and backsweep. We added a Racktime rear rack as well, and bought a Racktime basket - really nice integration between those two, the basket is easy to add/remove and can be locked to the rack. My gf loves it.
topkek
Thanks @essdi.
The All City has Tiagra 4700 STI levers with Tektro rx-5 mini v brakes and Kool Stop salmon pads. I like the combination very much - plenty of pad clearance against braking surface (18mm internal diameter DT swiss r460 rim), and good power and modulation. Placement of the studs can vary between frames, but here the brakes will clear a studded 40mm continental cx tire.
The Trek 520 started out with the same STI/brake combo as above, but it was tight with 38mm Paselas and fenders, so after a year I switched to cantis, which i hated, and then to a pair of Shimano mini v's. I believe they are called br-r353, they look exactly like them at least. Tire/fender clearance is a bit better, as the arms are a little longer, and there is still enough pad clearance against brake surface too. I think the power is even better than the Tektros, and I would probably get these again over the Tektros if I had to.
The cantis I had were the Tektro cr710, and they were an absolute pain to install and adjust. I have installed lots of old cantis on other bikes, but these were just horrible. I remember the power as about as good as the Tektro mini v's, and they obviously had a lot more tire clearance. I found that they would start to squeal a lot more than the mini v's, which required furhter adjustments - which was the reason i eventually replaced them
Over all the mini v's are extrememly easy to deal with, while the canti's require constant adjustments for optimal performance. Thats my experience at least, but I know some people love cantis. Hope that helped.