Which V-brakes to use?

[silentphoenix]

Heya all,

I'm in the process of kitting out my '95 Gary Fisher Presdio with XT M750 gear and was wonder what to do about my brake set up. I mainly use my bike as a commuter bike, and occasionally off road touring but nothing hard core.

I currently have a set of Tektro Sensir V-brakes and levers and my rims are Mavic MA40's.

What I have available to me for upgrade (or would be willing to buy):
Levers
XT ST-M092
XT M739 brake levers
Avid levers (which ones?)
V brakes
XT M739
XT M750
Avid SD 25
Avid SD 5
Avid SD 7

So, the question is what should i choose? Should I stick with my Tektros, or complete the XT groupset, or mix and match?

Thanks!

 

[dyna-ti]

XT levers with XT v's will always be a good pairing [m739]

 

[StarTREK]

XT Vs XT.

 

[hamster]

Sorry, one for Avids here.

SD25 works as well as XTR, it's lighter and doesn't squeal like a cat in a mangle.

Avid levers are just nicer made, without that plastic-meets-tin Nissan Micra feeling about Shimano.

And Shimano is *yawn* as boring as installing Win XP on a PC.

No, no keep installing Shimano, as it keeps Avid stuff (which is better) cheaper. :twisted:

 

[silentphoenix]

Thanks for your responses.

You mentioned that the SD 25 were as good as XTR - i came accross this opinion in some old reviews from 2005. But since then it seems that the SD 25 haven't been so easy to get hold of as the SD 7 (which is heavier, but also highly regarded in review).

Any opinions on the SD7 VS SD25? Do you think the Speed Dials are better than the XT levers?

I'm also really tempted to take the puritan route of all out XT! I hate making decisions! ;p

 

[hamster]

To be honest, there's not much difference in any of them - I weighed some cheap Tektro levers off my wife's Kona: within 10g of upmarket ones! They have been used solidly for 10 years and are still tight and slick.

I have just replaced some SD5 levers with SD Ti - apart from the nicer cosmetics and a gnat's saving on weight they are identical.
The Avid blades are thicker which to me makes them marginally less flexy.

 

[mechagouki]

Avid levers are just nicer made, without that plastic-meets-tin Nissan Micra feeling about Shimano.

I don't think that is in any way a fair description of these levers:

And their big brothers could never be called boring, just subtly cool:

Avids, whilst perfectly functional, always seem overbuilt to me, and somewhat lacking in character.

 

[02gf74]

even if I weren't selling a set of XT brakes and 1 XTR brake as well as XT brake/shifter STI combo (hint hint!!!) I would still say XT; or if your wallet is on the thin side, then LX.

there are many imatators, but value for money, you can't go wrong with Shimano
.

 

[Anthony]

I don't know any difference in quality between XT and Avid levers, slightly prefer the Avids. As far as brakes are concerned, Avids do at least work, which is more than can be said for well-used M739s and M950s. I believe the problem of excessive play in the linkages was sorted in the (slightly heavier) M750s, but I've never had any myself. I find Avid Arch Rivals the best of the parallel-push designs, although quite heavy. In general, parallel-push is superior (when new) to the standard Avid design, but not when there's play in the linkages.

 

[We_are_Stevo]

Ditto the Avid Arch Rivals - brilliant brakes...