Bicycle Mechanics - road bike and v brakes...

hi,
I have a road bike with caliper brakes and they work ok... I also have a hybrid that Im not really too fond of but I love the brakes on it... they grab really nicely...

so is there a way to use v brakes on my road bike using the road brake levers?

thx!

Probably not, if you have calipers, you wont have the frame / fork mounts for the V-type brakes, also, you would need an adaptor, like a travel agent for the road brake levers to work with the v-type brakes.

Would suggest looking at the pad type you are using if you are unhappy with the caliper performance, as calipers are very powerful with good pads, you say you like the grab, that isn't what you want with brakes, you should be looking for controlled modulation of the brake, having a lot of grab, will send you over the bars or make you loose contol with a skid.

Koolstop salmon pads are the go-to pads for calipers.

hi,
I have a road bike with caliper brakes and they work ok... I also have a hybrid that Im not really too fond of but I love the brakes on it... they grab really nicely...

so is there a way to use v brakes on my road bike using the road brake levers?

thx!

I am assuming you have brake mounting posts for mounting linear brakes. If not, you will need an adapter device that mounts to the fork crown hole and to the rear brake mount or you will need a framebuilder to weld brake posts onto your frame, which is almost too expensive to be worthwhile.

As for the brake levers, you can use travel agents to convert the short pull of the road lever to the long pull needed by the linear brake, or you can use one of the few short-pull linear brakes that are made for use with road levers, or you can use one of the special drop bar brake levers designed for use with long-pull brakes (DiaCompe 287V is one, I believe.)