A question about V-Brakes

[Ultra Mikenus]

Hello, another silly question from me. Is it possible to upgrade older style V- Brakes to the more modern ones? So short stubby to more eloquent longer ones on the same bike....

 

[rossi46]

The short answer is yes. So long as the pad and pivot position/distance is the same.

 

[the_duke]

Hello, another silly question from me. Is it possible to upgrade older style V- Brakes to the more modern ones? So short stubby to more eloquent longer ones on the same bike....

Just to check.

When you say short stubby ones do you mean Cantilever brakes? They are used in conjunction with a straddle wire across the top.

Like these,

You can still swap them for more modern V-brakes but you will need V-brake levers too.

Sorry if I have got the wrong end of the stick but worth checking.

 

[Ultra Mikenus]

Yes, just like those!

So I'd need to upgrade both levers & brakes at the same time, damn.
I'm just watching an Orange P7 on ebay "Item number: 250848137600" and it looks to have the older style brakes, presumably they changed design for good reason? :?

 

[drystonepaul]

The brakes in the above photo are known as 'cantilever brakes' and were used on the majority of mountain bikes up until late 1996 when Shimano released their mass produced V-brake. Other types of brakes existed at the time too including U-brakes, roller cams and disc brakes, but V-brakes arrived in late 1996.

Prior to Shimano's first XT V-brakes there were other smaller companies who had produced similar linear pull designs before Shimano came along and made them affordable and popular.

The benefits of V-brakes are that they are easy to set up, and give more leverage at the brake itself. This means that less leverage and therefore effort is required at the brake lever. The brake levers on V-brakes have a greater distance between the pivot and cable, ie lower leverage. This is compensated by the longer arms of the V-brake which gives more leverage.
This means that with less effort from your fingers you can achieve more braking force than with cantilevers.

Without getting into the 'which is better' argument, it means that potentially for the less effort you can get the same braking power as a well set up canti. hence why they are generally seen as a design improvement.

Unfortunately cantis can be difficult to set up correctly, so many people will have, or remember having, bad experiences with them.
They can work very well but it's all about set up...

 

[Ultra Mikenus]

In a nutshell, get a bike with V's on already to save the hassle......

 

[Supratada]

The hassle is part of the whole retrobike scene, I feel.

 

[petitpal]

The hassle is part of the whole retrobike scene, I feel.

I'd agree with that - setting everything up was always half the fun.


More generally though, I'd say though that upgrading from canti's to V's isn't any great trouble. Undo a few bolts, run a bit of extra brake outer and some new inners (which if you're buying a bike off ebay might not be a bad idea anyway), whack on some new brakes and levers, fiddle for a bit to get it all set-up and that's that. Not rocket science.

 

[T'boo Ted]

One thing, I seem to remember (it was a long time ago, so could be completely wrong about this) when I 1st got V's (the red DX ones) and put them on my 94 Manitou, the canti studs were too long and you couldn't bolt them straight on, had to change the studs...

 

[hot chilli]

just to complicate things more... lol

you could get (i have some and will ad pics) a roller unit that replaced the 90degree tube on V brakes. it was a cam roller that made it posible to use V's with the standard canti levers.

i used the original XTR shifter/lever setup for some time with XT v brakes
in conjunction with these rollers

will have to sort ut a pic.