Avid Brake Lever Question.

[stephan]

Anyone know which Avid Brake lever model numbers are compatable with early 90's Canti Brakes?

I will be looking out for some and read somewhere some Avid brake levers were compatable with Canti and V Brakes? Thought am compelety unsure which are suitable for Canti's.

ta.

 

[KermitGKona88]

Generally the ones with the longer levers and no crumple zone are Canti compatible. Some say the speed dial can make them do both but I have never found this to be the case.

 

[joglo]

I personally find that the Speed Dial helps to adjust the levers to some extent do support both, cantilever and v-brakes. At least running "L" levers orginally for V-brakes with Canti does work for me OK.

But here is a bit of history and more information on the Avid levers
https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/avid-speed-dial-brake-levers-v-canti.471361/post-3489899
To my knowledge, the Ultimate had been originally designed for Cantilevers.
They got later a different internal chip to be able to support V-Brakes, a picture of this chips is at this post
https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads...vid-arch-supreme-v-brakes.304798/post-2281195
The SD2.0 without "L" had been to my knowledge designed still for cantis.
We have recently discovered that also certain bikes like the 96 Barracuda AL750 had been officially equipped with those 2.0 levers in combination with Onza HO cantilevers.

The ones with "L" than for V-Brakes.

 

[JamesP]

I personally find that the Speed Dial helps to adjust the levers to some extent do support both, cantilever and v-brakes.

here is a bit of history on the Avid levers
https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/avid-speed-dial-brake-levers-v-canti.471361/post-3489899
To my knowledge, the Ultimate had been originally designed for Cantilevers.
They got later a different internal chip to be able to support V-Brakes, a picture of this chips is at this post
https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads...vid-arch-supreme-v-brakes.304798/post-2281195
The SD2.0 without "L" had been to my knowledge designed still for cantis.
We have recently discovered that also certain bikes like the 96 Barracuda AL750 had been officially equipped with those 2.0 levers in combination with Onza HO cantilevers.

The ones with "L" than for V-Brakes.

 

[stephan]

Thanks for this, it is useful:

"The levers had been long and straight and they had been just called SD 2.0 (without an L).

They got later in 1997 adjusted for V-Brakes and got an "L" Label e.g. SD 2.0 L, also the lever wasn't just straight any longer but got an indentation."

 

[Black_puma]

I took a pair of those Avid levers of a Mongoose Iboc Pro SX with a combination of V's and Cantis.
Not found a use for them yet, I prefer shorter levers. I'll put them up for sale soon.

 

[stephan]

I took a pair of those Avid levers of a Mongoose Iboc Pro SX with a combination of V's and Cantis.
Not found a use for them yet, I prefer shorter levers. I'll put them up for sale soon.

@Black_puma thanks for the reply, I have now sourced XT V-Brakes and XT-Levers to suit my needs when ready, however am sure you will sell the Avid's very easily - they don't appear to last long on sale from other sites, cheers Stephan.

 

[sam_white]

If it has an 'L' in the part number, I believe that means it is for long travel (V) brakes.