855 Brakes - what are the options?

[Colin]

Like you said a change of levers is in order, although if your wheels are dead straight you can set up V's nicely with Canti levers, I did that for years before I found out there was different levers.

Aaaah....... I've been thinking of putting V's on my Marin Pine Mountain as it has cantis and they're pretty poor, but thought you "had" to change the levers? tell me more, was it really simple? is it just that the V levers have less travel or more....?

Col.

[sammydog]

The canti levers don't have as big a leverage ratio as the dedicated V-Brake levers. So for each pull of the lever they aren't pulling through as much cable.

So to set up the V's with them, you essentially have to get the pads as close to the rim as possible so when setting them up. The feel at the lever is a little spongy, but you get used to it.

Setting them up is just trial and error for me, but I'm sure some people may have a methof that works.

Personally, I would prefer to use V-Brake levers and I got some Avid Speed Dial 5's pretty cheap. The V specific levers are a lot simpler and quicker to set up.

[red855]

Cheers guys, yesterday I decided I'd go for the V's and what  I have just read has re-assured me on choice.  I'm going to source some XT/XTR + levers very shortly.


Sean

[red855]

Just to follow up I got a set of new XT V brakes (from Chain Reaction Cycles) and some secondhand Avid levers off Ebay.

I'm extremely happy and the difference is incredible, ample power for my needs.  Should have dumped those cantilevers years ago.  The full upgrade cost me about £46 GBP  

However what I am feeling more now is the pulsing from the front Vector 2's when braking hard, it feels like an oscillation of the forks back and forth - anyone know what this might be?  The Vectors are running a Risse shock.  Is it something to do with the adjuster on the Vector top link which I haven't touched for years..

Cheers

[willem]

Ahhh... the very reason I switched to discos.
Sounds like you've got some rim irregularities. It's possible to run cantilevers and not notice small deformities in the rim. (Less power, less feedback.)
When you switch to V-brakes you get more feedback with all that power.
One of the reasons I switched my Proflexes to telescoping forks was the brake dive. It can probably be mitigated, but I never figured out how.

Go get 'em,
Will

[shovelon]

I did have the same effect with my crosslink on my 957 early on. Brake dive due to J- path and pulsing from the seam on my spinery rim. Not a big issue when braking in straight line, but I would lose traction and lock up the brake in a turn. Broke my shoulder due to a bad crash on a downhill curve when the front wheel washed out from under me.

I ended up removing the spinergy to another bike, and turning the legs forward for more rake that would lengthen wheelbase.

[stealib]

Hi, if the angle at the back is too tight and catching your pedals/ shoes use a cog hog instead of the v brake guide tube.  it works a treat!

[Other kiwi]

Hey folks:

I've run three brake set-ups on my '98 4000:
- The original LX Vs (without the parallelogram linkage), swapped for;
- Avid Arch Rivals on the front / XT Vs on the back, swapped for;
- HS33s front and back.

To me there's not a lot of difference in power between the Vs and the HS33s - the hydraulics are a bit more powerful, and I haven't noticed any difference in sensitivity or control. I think I've noticed a small difference in wet-weather performance where the Vs are better.

However, I do like the fact that the HS33s are basically set-and-forget items and haven't needed any attention since I set them up a year ago.  Having said that, any of the parallel-push V brakes (LX / XT / XTR, Arch Rivals) don't need a lot of attention either.

As far as taking the wheels off with the HS33s fitted, I let the air out of the tyre  - which allows one the squash the tryre and slip it past the brakes - and reinflate the tyre after the wheel has been resinstalled. This is definitely the easy option compared to unbolting the brake booster and moving the brake bodies themselves.