Travel agents with SRAM road STIs and V-brakes

[Fatal Swan]

I'm putting a retro-modern drop bar conversion together and have just fitted "travel agent" type adapters between the road STIs and the V-brakes (actually they are these cheap replicas imported from China for less than 1/4 of the price of the Problem Solvers originals). They're a bit fiddly to set up but now they're on, I'm literally amazed at how powerful the SRAM Red levers feel with a set of Avid V-brakes. I use the same levers on my road bike with road calipers and they aren't anywhere near as good! I was so impressed I thought I'd post on here.

 

[Woz]

How do they compare to proper flat bar V-brake levers?

I have a build in mind which I may need to use travel agents, so thanks for posting info on this.

 

[Fatal Swan]

I haven't ridden them yet as the bike isn't quite ready, but I'd say the feel of the brakes when you pull the levers is as sharp as the best V-brake setup I had (XTR M950 levers and XTR M970 calipers). I should be finished with the build in a few days and in a position to test them on the road, though mine are running on ceramic rims and I had some spare compression-free cable housing to use, both of which will improve the brakes further.

I found this video on installing them useful - the important bit is aligning the cable routing hole on the wheel. That hole is also a pretty tight fit for the cable that passes through it and I found a drop of oil in it helped with threading the cable through.