Mountain Biking - V Brake set up.

Just a really quick query that I think I already know the answer to.....

my rear wheel has gone badly out of dish and as a botched trail repair I had to alter the tension adjuster screws on my brakes. One side I had to wind right in and the other right out, in order to stop rubbing. I even had to slacken the cable off a bit toward the end of the ride just to keep it turning to get me home. I've ordered a long overdue new wheel but need to know the following. When I set up my v brake on the new wheel, where should the tension screws be? I'm thinking about half way between fully in and fully out so there is adjustment available in either direction? Is this common sense approach the one to follow?

That makes sense.

You want them to have as little tension as possible. Just enough to pull the pads off the wheel when you don't have the lever actuated. When you are trying to set your v-brake arm tension always try to loosen the side opposite the one touching first rather than tightening the side that is.

Tighter arm tension does not give you any better braking what so ever, it just makes actuation of the brakes stiffer, which isn't a good thing.

So to answer your question, there is not default rule of thumb setting. It depends on your levers, cables, etc...

Nice one, cheers for the advice.

One thing that I do when installing new pads is to make sure the lever adjustment is part of the way out. That way, if I "ding" a rim, I can turn the adjustment in at the lever so the pad does not rub the rim until I can get home and true the rim.