CanadianBiker32

I am thinking of converting an old mt bike to more of a gravel grinder.

Question i have is when i put on the drop bars. As i will have to get road bike style brake levers
would these brake levers work with the V Brakes i have already on the mt bike? or would i have to get cantilever brakes as well

or can i just use my existing mt bike brake levers onto the drop bars?

jjames2b

I don't know about using your existing mountain levers on drop bars... The standard diameters for road vs mountain bars are different, so the probably wouldn't fit.

If you're keeping v-brakes but want road style levers, you will need long pull ones.

I have these on my commuter (drop bar v-brakes) and they work great.
Amazon.com : Tektro RL520 Ergo Brake Levers for Linear Pull Black/Black : Bike Brake Levers : Sports & Outdoors

dabac

"Normal" road brake levers don't work well with v-brakes - too little cable pull.
It can do OK on the front, but the extra mushiness from the longer cabling run tend to make it difficult to get the rear both to lock up and to run free when not used.
You need either long-pull road levers, Travel Agents, Mini-Vs or canti brakes for a clean and trouble-free install.
Flat bar levers don't work well on normal drop bars - wrong clamp area diameter.
Flat bar clamp diameter is 22.2 mm, regular drop bar clamp diameter is 23.8 mm.
Some people have succeeded in reworking flat bar levers to physically fit drop bars, but then there's the question about where to put them.
The arc and angle of a flat bar lever doesn't work well together with the normal mounting area right above the apex of the downward bend.
22.2 mm diameter drop bars can be found, but doesn't solve the issue of where to mount the levers.
Close to the stem - about where interrupter levers usually go - would probably be least silly. But that'd leave you w/o the most commonly used riding position for drop bars - on the hoods.

CliffordK

Here is a lengthy thread on MTB Drop Bar conversions.

https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...nversions.html

What type of shifters are you planning on using?

The Tektro & Crane Creek brake levers are long pull levers, and are supposed to be linear pull / V-brake compatible.

There is also a converter called Problem Solvers Travel Agent which is supposed to double the brake pull, and help with using long pull brakes with standard levers. In fact, it is designed to replace the V-Brake noodle.

auxym

Sheldon Brown has also discussed this on his handlebars page. The short of it is either get special road levers made for v-brake pull ratios (cane creek as mentioned above) or change the v-brakes for cantis.

fietsbob

The Tektro V pull levers were Mentioned .. Paul's Top Mount levers are made so as to be compatible with the longer cable pull need, of V brakes,

by relocating the pivot pin, in the Lever.

mijome07

Cane Creek Drop V Levers on a 29er I got back in 2010. I was the first to do this with this particular bike.

In 2011, I ended up replacing the drop bars and levers with a flat bar and MTB levers.