Houckster
July 24th 03, 06:41 AM
I have V-Brakes on my touring bike and I can assure you they were the
very devil to get working properly. My touring frame is a Cannondale and
I am not sure if there is anything technically different between these
frames like cable routing, bosses, whatever. My answer also assumes a
standard road handlebar rather than a ATB bar. I have also not worked
with a mini V-brake but I don't think there is a huge material
difference between them and the one I use. I could be wrong.
It is a pity that really good cantilever brakes are difficult to find
these days because the V-brakes are not that much better than a
cantilever brakes.
That said, here are the problems I had with the brakes I installed
(Shimano XTR):
1) The springs on the brakes themselves are much weaker than a road
bike requires. The ATB type brake levers compensate by having a much
stronger spring to retract the cable. Road bike lever have a weak
one or none at all. Even after bending the springs to increase the
tension, the brake pads would not come off the rim. I had to mount a
spring along the cable between the arms to get pads off the rim. I
got the spring and some rubber washers that separate the spring from
the arms at a hardware store. The length of the spring should exceed
the distance between the ends of the V-brake arms by a quarter of an
inch or so.
2) Cable retraction required for a road bike brake is much less than for
V-brakes so a road lever optimized for V-Brakes is made by Dia-Compe.
Fortunately, it is a good comfortable lever. Note, however, that
you're probably not home yet. When I installed the lever, braking was
OK but not good and the levers bottomed out easily. Unfortunately it
was also necessary to install one of those devices that doubles the
amount of cable retracted for a given amount of lever movement. They
are called "cable-doublers" around here before installation and quite
a few other names during and after installation.
The result of all my efforts is a brake that works pretty well but don't
expect the elegant performance of a good road brake or even a good
cantilever. The V-brakes were never designed for road bikes. I use mine
only because a really good cantilever brake is just not available any
longer so far as I am aware. The effort to activate the brakes is higher
than normal but not, at least to me, objectionable.
--
>--------------------------<
Posted via cyclingforums.com
http://www.cyclingforums.com
very devil to get working properly. My touring frame is a Cannondale and
I am not sure if there is anything technically different between these
frames like cable routing, bosses, whatever. My answer also assumes a
standard road handlebar rather than a ATB bar. I have also not worked
with a mini V-brake but I don't think there is a huge material
difference between them and the one I use. I could be wrong.
It is a pity that really good cantilever brakes are difficult to find
these days because the V-brakes are not that much better than a
cantilever brakes.
That said, here are the problems I had with the brakes I installed
(Shimano XTR):
1) The springs on the brakes themselves are much weaker than a road
bike requires. The ATB type brake levers compensate by having a much
stronger spring to retract the cable. Road bike lever have a weak
one or none at all. Even after bending the springs to increase the
tension, the brake pads would not come off the rim. I had to mount a
spring along the cable between the arms to get pads off the rim. I
got the spring and some rubber washers that separate the spring from
the arms at a hardware store. The length of the spring should exceed
the distance between the ends of the V-brake arms by a quarter of an
inch or so.
2) Cable retraction required for a road bike brake is much less than for
V-brakes so a road lever optimized for V-Brakes is made by Dia-Compe.
Fortunately, it is a good comfortable lever. Note, however, that
you're probably not home yet. When I installed the lever, braking was
OK but not good and the levers bottomed out easily. Unfortunately it
was also necessary to install one of those devices that doubles the
amount of cable retracted for a given amount of lever movement. They
are called "cable-doublers" around here before installation and quite
a few other names during and after installation.
The result of all my efforts is a brake that works pretty well but don't
expect the elegant performance of a good road brake or even a good
cantilever. The V-brakes were never designed for road bikes. I use mine
only because a really good cantilever brake is just not available any
longer so far as I am aware. The effort to activate the brakes is higher
than normal but not, at least to me, objectionable.
--
>--------------------------<
Posted via cyclingforums.com
http://www.cyclingforums.com