sheldon brown (r.i.p.) went on at length all over his website about not mixing direct-pull ("V" brake, noodle brake) brake levers with any other type of brakes & vice versa.
here is one quote, from http://www.sheldonbrown.com/canti-direct.html :
Direct-pull cantilevers have double the mechanical advantage compared with traditional brakes, so they require special brake levers. Direct-pull brake levers pull the cable twice as far, half as hard. The lower mechanical advantage of the lever compensates for the higher M.A. of the cantilever. It is not generally safe to mix and match levers/cables between direct pull and other types for this reason.
* Conventional brake levers used with direct-pull cantilevers will
usually not pull enough cable to stop in wet conditions without bottoming out against the handlebars. In dry conditions, they either won't work, or will grab too suddenly.
* Direct-pull brake levers used with any other type of brakes will
feel nice and solid when you squeeze them, but due to their lower mechanical advantage you'll need to squeeze twice as hard to stop as you should, so unless you are a lightweight rider with gorilla-like paws, this combination isn't safe either.
...end quote
so my question is this... do i need to go through my personal collection of brake levers and somehow identify/separate DP levers from the rest? is there any simple way to do this? it seems like a problem i've seen many people run in to--the brakes seem fine on the stand, nonexistant when the bike goes out for a test ride. so this is probably something we should be on the lookout for, right?
ok, thanks
erik
of course there is this huge and boring page as well:
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/cantilever-geometry.html#mechanical