Can I replace my self-energizing brakes with regular cantilevers? I recently bought a used tandem and am going to be tuning it up over the winter.  It's a Yakota Twin Peaks (i.e. 20 years old) and it has Scott-Peterson Self-Energizing brakes.  I haven't taken them apart yet, but all the descriptions online say the same thing: they have a helical thread as the pivot, so when the pad touches the rim and is dragged forward, the pads are forced inward onto the rims with more force, increasing the braking power.

What I'm wondering is whether there are conventional cantilever bosses under there or did the SE brakes require something special?

For my purposes (pretty gentle cruising on the tandem with my daughter on the back), I don't think I need any extra stopping power, so I'm thinking of replacing the SE brakes with regular cantilevers.  But before I dive in, I'd like to find out more about what I'll find if I start taking them apart.
The Scott-Peterson SE brakes used standard canti bosses. You're probably safe to replace them with standard cantis or V-brakes (what type of levers are you using?).