Fkn hate V brakes

I’ve had this set in my garage for a few years, but a part is missing, I have never seen another set for sale in the U.K.
 
Cheap v-brakes are mostly bad, and get worse fast.
Decent v-brakes are mostly good, unless they are worn or seized, in which case they are bad.

(You can generally substitute any bike part for "v-brake" in the above)

User-maintainability is good, but
Worn rims are bad.

Silvery-black hands after a tyre change are always bad, if you know what I mean.
 
Yes, to be a bit more balanced, and being in the oddball position of someone who is relatively new to an out dated technology (!) here’s what I found:

V brake pads need to sit nearer the rim than cantis: the lever effect of the arms means that if you want to move the pads a bit further out (to fix say, an anomaly like a slightly less than true rim - heaven forfend…), then you have to release a lot of ‘straddle’ wire which gives you a terrible lever feel.

Because the pads live closer to the rim and the lever effect is strong, the difference between caressing the rim and locking it up is smaller, hence the grabby/ on-off feel (prolly why cyclo cross riders avoided them).

Now, for balance, most cantilever brakes are terrible: low profile arms and the hideous shimano straddle wire approach mean most people’s experience of them was the sort of hate I displayed the other day. BUT,

… get some wide profile cantis, with a hook style straddle cradle support (Tektro, Paul’s, etc) and you get a progressive powerful stopper that is easy to set up and very forgiving as things wear or get out of shape.

As for a squishy lever feel? Very unnecessary: listen to the snap on this puppy … (you can also hear the cat purring which is the ultimate endorsement 😄)

 
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