Brake Upgrade Advice - 1993 Kona Kilauea

[Anthony]

I'm in the process of changing my brakes around, along with the gears. When I say "change", I actually mean fit the parts and then swear at them a lot when they don't do what you want them to... Notice the ****ing enormous gap between the blocks and the rim

In the end, what I've had to do is move *all* of the washers/cup & ball joints from the outside of the brake arm, to the inside... I'm fairly sure that it's not supposed to be that way, but it seems to have worked. All that's left on the outside of the brake arm is the allen washer that bolts everything together.

You're right, it won't work that way.

I'm not sure I like the look of those brakes, but no matter, they should work satisfactorily. It looks though from the photo as though you have quite narrow rims on there - in that case you will need to add more plain washers at the base of the peg before you put the concave/convex washers on. You MUST have one pair of concave/convex outside the brake arm and one pair inside, otherwise you won't be able to adjust the alignment of the pads properly.

As far as tightness goes, you should clamp the cable so that the metal male will only *just* fit inside the metal female [I'm sure they're not really called male and female, but I trust you know what I mean and the Moderators will take an understanding attitude] If you want the pads tighter in still, you can screw out the adjuster at the lever (but bear in mind that you'll need to screw it in again whenever you remove the wheel).

If one side is touching the rim, you need to screw in the tension aduster on the side that's touching. Or if it's already screwed all the way in, screw out the adjuster on the other side.

That's all there is to it with V-brakes. I don't bother with toe-in personally, but I expect many do.

But my word of warning is that if your rims are shot, no brake will work well, not XTR Vs, nor Maguras. A lot of people blame the brakes when it's the rims that are at fault.

 

[cce]

some rim/brake/frame or fork combos will just never EVER work

for example, a project 2, an M570 V and a mavic F519 has no useful setups available

 

[cce]

oh and for the OP this is a user called garethRL's solution to your problem using nokon housing

i probably have a wee bit of nokon somewhere you can have for some karma if i can find it

 

[Anthony]

PS, I'm not sure what the curved bit of metal tube is called, maybe a noodle, but anyway the one you've put on the front may do better on the rear, and you should have a more angled one that would be suitable on the front. I never use any more than the minimum amount of cable outer on the front, to minimise any stretch issues.

 

[Anthony]

some rim/brake/frame or fork combos will just never EVER work

for example, a project 2, an M570 V and a mavic F519 has no useful setups available

I agree. An F519 is no use at all, scrap job really. How much do you want for it?

 

[FunkyMrMagic]

Cheers Anthony, that all makes sense... You're not the first to say that the rims seem skinny, but I've got nothing to compare them with. Have you got any idea where I could get spare plain washers from? The V's will clearly work if I can just get them close enough to the rim...

Christ, I hope it's not my rims too... Stuff knows I can't afford to throw any more money into this thing right now!

Cheers, and sorry for the hijack...

 

[Anthony]

Cheers Anthony, that all makes sense... You're not the first to say that the rims seem skinny, but I've got nothing to compare them with. Have you got any idea where I could get spare plain washers from? The V's will clearly work if I can just get them close enough to the rim...
Christ, I hope it's not my rims too... Stuff knows I can't afford to throw any more money into this thing right now!
Cheers, and sorry for the hijack...

I expect you could get satisfactory washers from B&Q - they seem to be about 3/8ths wide, with an internal diameter of a quarter of an inch. I may well be wrong about the rims, but obviously one explanation for the brake arms pointing inwards when tight is that the rim is narrow (e.g., a fairly narrow rim, like a 717 say, has a 21mm outside width). If the rim is narrow, I think you'd be right to add washers until you can get the pads tight with the arms vaguely vertical, as this gives the pads a better angle. What I meant by shot though is if the braking surface is seriously concave - that means the pads tend to slide across the surface rather than squeeze it. Or if they're really seriously concave, they just flex and absorb the squeeze, so you don't get much braking force at all. Always something to be wary of in restoring an old bike.

Is that an Orange F7 fork you have there?

 

[cce]

some rim/brake/frame or fork combos will just never EVER work

for example, a project 2, an M570 V and a mavic F519 has no useful setups available

I agree. An F519 is no use at all, scrap job really. How much do you want for it?

the only one of those parts i still have is the P2

 

[FunkyMrMagic]

The bike is 2nd hand... I bought it probably 7 or 8 years ago after all of my other bikes were nicked (at different times), but I don't know that much about it. As far as I can tell, all the parts are stock aside from the ones that I've fitted myself, so I don't honestly know about the forks

It's badged as an Avanti Competitor Pro, and I can't really find anything out about it. Fully rigid, alu frame, full XT that I'd place around the early/mid '90's (eg: 7 speed, short cage rear). Because it's hardly been ridden recently it's in need of some proper TLC, and what started off as minor maintenance is turning into major restoration project:

New brakes are on but not functioning properly, gripshift fitted and cabled, but I can't get the damn thing shifting smoothly... For some reason the front derailleur starts to catch the rear tyre when it's on the granny... Never did that before I re-cabled, but I've not moved anything... Just noticed last night that the chain is worn to buggery too, it was sagging something cruel on the two smallest cogs, so I need a new one of them too. It's a proper pain when all I want to do is get out and ride it.

Here's a full pic taken in happier (and significantly cleaner) times:

 

[Anthony]

New brakes are on but not functioning properly, gripshift fitted and cabled, but I can't get the damn thing shifting smoothly... For some reason the front derailleur starts to catch the rear tyre when it's on the granny... Never did that before I re-cabled, but I've not moved anything... Just noticed last night that the chain is worn to buggery too, it was sagging something cruel on the two smallest cogs, so I need a new one of them too. It's a proper pain when all I want to do is get out and ride it.

We are departing from the OP's topic now, but just briefly the front mech cage should point parallel to the centre line of the bike to the centre of the cassette. If it's fouling the tyre, I wonder if the clamp is loose and it has turned round. If so, this could also be causing the chain to be slack, although that is usually caused by the rear mech spring tension being low/rear mech being seized and begging for oil.