Folding Bikes - Brake upgrade for my Dahon

Hi,

I recently purchased a Dahon Vitesse that suffered some damage to the front brake in transit. Truth be told, the plastic bushing of the brakeset (Kinetix Pro V) looked pretty lame compared to the metal one that came on my wife's similar Novarra Flyby (Speedstop). So I'm looking for an upgrade.

Anyone know of a source for Dahon brake upgrades (there aren't any brakes on Thorusa.com) or another brand of brakes that will fit?

You can use virtually any mountain V-brake on your bike.
Now it's all down to budget and availability.

e.g. Shimano, Avid, ... (too many to name)

Any of the Avid "Single Digit" line pictured here would be fine for example
http://www.sram.com/en/avid/rimbrakes/index.php

cheers

PS. in terms of "upgrade" it may come down to the brake pad moreso than the v-brake. Granted higher end v-brakes usually come with decent pads, but adding some KoolStops or something to your new brakes whatever they are should help. I had the Avid Ultimates and for the price I'm not sure that I would say they were SO much better than the original brakes on our Helios or Speed P8's... I liked the look though :)

I think I used an Avid 5 on my Dahon S1 (single-speed with brake only on the front wheel). I also replaced the plastic brake lever with an Avid product. Amazing how much better the brakes work now.

A further improvement would be to replace the brake pads with Kool Stops as 4cmd3 suggests.

[I did the same brake lever upgrade to my grandson's $71 beach bike; he no longer complains about the poor brakes.]

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. The arms on the Dahon brakes seem a bit shorter than standard, which lead me to believe I might need a mini v.

As for the "upgrade" part, I probably will go with an inexpensive tektro or avid 5/7. The part that is damaged on my brake is the plastic bushing that sits between the fork and the caliper, and into which the adjustment screw goes. The Avid 5 looks like an upgrade in this respect.