Shimano Deore DX brake lever question?

Have these levers on a loaner mountain bike with V brakes, they have a
H L adjust on the brake levers, one is set high, the other low, trying
to understand the reason for these adjusters and how they should be
set up?

On Tue, 31 Jul 2007 17:07:43 -0700, PiledHigher wrote:

Have these levers on a loaner mountain bike with V brakes, they have a
H L adjust on the brake levers, one is set high, the other low, trying
to understand the reason for these adjusters and how they should be
set up?

That's going back a way: the bike must be around 10 years old.

Anyway, the H lever pulls more cable for a given lever pull, so works
better with V brakes. However, there's a lower mechanical advantage as a
result, so if you've got canti's you're better off with the L setting. Of
course, if you set up your brakes right and like silly amounts of power,
Vs with the L setting works rather nicely.

Sounds like the owner has a preferred feel for the brakes, and configured
them that way, or did it by accident without realising.

--
Dave Hughes |
We are, in fact, at the cutting edge of cocking about
- Richard Hammond, Top Gear

I have similar levers on my venerable GT Zaskar. I have the front set on L
to give me more modulation and the rear set on H. In theory the H can make
Vbrakes pretty grabby but I've set it that way because the Zaskar frame was
built for canti brakes and the cable route for Vs makes the rear release a
little slowly - I've never managed to fix that despite many different cable
types and configurations and several brakes. Works well for me...

Cheers,

Frank


"PiledHigher" wrote in message
ups.com...
Have these levers on a loaner mountain bike with V brakes, they have a
H L adjust on the brake levers, one is set high, the other low, trying
to understand the reason for these adjusters and how they should be
set up?

On Aug 1, 3:22 pm, "Dave" wrote:
On Tue, 31 Jul 2007 17:07:43 -0700, PiledHigher wrote:
Have these levers on a loaner mountain bike with V brakes, they have a
H L adjust on the brake levers, one is set high, the other low, trying
to understand the reason for these adjusters and how they should be
set up?

That's going back a way: the bike must be around 10 years old.

Anyway, the H lever pulls more cable for a given lever pull, so works
better with V brakes. However, there's a lower mechanical advantage as a
result, so if you've got canti's you're better off with the L setting. Of
course, if you set up your brakes right and like silly amounts of power,
Vs with the L setting works rather nicely.

Sounds like the owner has a preferred feel for the brakes, and configured
them that way, or did it by accident without realising.

--
Dave Hughes |
We are, in fact, at the cutting edge of cocking about
- Richard Hammond, Top Gear

I would err to the side of by accident, this bike is in immaculate
condition despite being that old, already had to swap out a stem that
had a stripped thread so mechanics may not be a strong point.

I'll put them to H on both sides and see how they feel.

Thought the answer would be to do with the differnt mechanical
advantage but wasn't sure which way I was likely to need to go.