fadetoblack6902

I am building up an old GT Outpost trail mountain bike frame and i'm having some issues finding brakes that work. the bike came with a rear canti brake. The problem with that is the rear cable stop is on the front of the seat tube (closest to the handlebars) and directly in the middle. Obviously I cannot use this stop because the cable would then have to rub on the side of the seat tube and then would not be directly down the middle to set up for canti brakes.

I put a set of v tektro v brakes on, and the first thing I noticed was there wasn't enough room to install the pads with the correct spacers. there simply wasnt enough room between the brake arm and the rim. These are standard brake pads, not big fat ones. Then I cheated and took out a few spacers just to see if it would work, and the brake set up fine, but had no stopping power. no matter how tight I set the cable, the lever would squeeze all the way in to the bar.

I believe the levers were canti levers, which could explain why the v brakes didn't have enough power.

What are my options? I will get new v brake levers if needed, or I have no problem using canti's.

Here's a link to pics of the brake area
https://beta.propichosting.com/Album....lder=450021599

thanks in advance

JunkYardBike

JunkYardBike

Ah, you got them to work.

If they were originally set up with cantis, how was the cable routed?

And yes, you need v-brake compatible levers if you stick with the v-brakes.

fadetoblack6902

I got the frame as a frame/fork/rear canti brake only and they weren't set up unfortunantly.

JunkYardBike

I suppose you could get a seatpost binder bolt cable hanger and run a cable from the stop on your frame to the hanger. The bend would be tight, however, and add friction to the system. But I have a similar setup on a bike and haven't encountered trouble with it (not many miles on it, however).

Going with the v-brakes and levers might be more simple, and many prefer the ease of v-brake setup over cantis.

fadetoblack6902

I thought about the seat binder cable hanger, but that would be a very steep bend. Maybe i'll try it though. Also with v brakes could the small distance between the brake bosses (space from brake arm to rim) cause a problem even with v brake levers?

JunkYardBike

Not sure, you may be right. The stays may be too narrow for v-brakes. I don't really have much experience with this kind of conversion, however. Some with more experience will be along shortly, I'm sure.

cs1

How did the bike look with the cantilevers on it? GT used U-brakes on a lot of it's Nineties era bikes. Mine has the U-brake mounted on the seat stays. If you didn't know it was equipped with them you might think they canti mounts, they aren't. Something to check.

How about posting a pic of the brake with the wheel mounted, from the rear. It will let us know, by the mounting studs, whether it's supposed to have canit/V-brakes or U-brakes. On a U-brake equipped bike, the studs are mounted above the rim. On a canti/V-brake bike the studs are mounted below the rim. Good luck

Tim

ang1sgt

That bike looks like a later model from the 2001 time frame due to the Triple Triangle decal. This bike should have had V-Brakes on it from the get go. On those bikes they had a short piece of housing that went to the typical V-Brake Noodle and then to the V-Brakes themselves. I tried to find a picture of one, but could not find it. These were pretty darn nice bikes in their day, and I think at the time they were better than the same price point Trek which would have been like an 830.

Chris

fadetoblack6902

I would have been guessing this is a 90's bike. you may be right though.

The brakes that came on it were definately canti's. here are more pics. How do you make them load onto the page?

https://www2.propichosting.com/Images/450021599/6.JPG
https://www2.propichosting.com/Images/450021599/5.JPG
https://www2.propichosting.com/Images/450021599/4.JPG

top506

V-brake pads usually have a thick spacer set on one side and a thin set on the other. Switching these can make a big difference.
I have the same frameset hanging on the wall of the barn waiting for blasting and powdercoat and the V-brakes mounted up fine.
Top

JunkYardBike

Click on the button in the message toolbar that looks like a postcard of some mountains, and paste your url there.

JunkYardBike

You might also try some Kool Stop MTB pads, as they are very thin, though I'm not sure you'll get much less of an offset than with other pads. You can swap the thick and thin spacers, but you can't remove them on these pads, or you'll lose your adjustability (the washers and spacers are concave and convex).

leob1

I did the same with a GT, switched to V-brakes from canti.
1 get new levers made for v-brakes, the ones from you cantis won't really work if you want to stop.
2 run the cable housing from the lever to the noddle, lube the cable before you put it in the housing.