I was upgrading my shifters from the integrated Easy Fires that came on my Trek bike. As I was going to need standalone brake levers anyway I went ahead and just bought the Single Digit 7 brakes/Speed Dial 7 levers combo from Pricepoint, figuring what the heck.
My bike came with the run of the mill Tektro V-brakes so I knew they were low end but honestly didn't think I'd see that big of a difference with the Single Digit's. I was WAY wrong. WOW! Absolutely unbelievable. And before anyone assumes that it was the new cables or the lever, I didn't even replace them yet. I had some time today so I just swapped out my front brake arms, nothing else. And the Tektros were adjusted properly as just last week I had the bike into my LBS for a tune-up.
The difference is completely insane. From decent braking (I had no complaints) to downright dangerously close to going over the bars if you're not paying attention. The effort required to activate the brakes was probably without exaggeration cut in half or more, and the braking is not even comparable.
My whole point I guess is just to let people know that all v-brakes are NOT the same! With the decent but not stop on a dime performance I had from my initial Tektros I could understand that people would go disc for "real riding". While I'm CERTAIN that for muddy/wet/LONG down hill runs the disc option is the only option for some, after running these single digit's I'm equally certain that there's a lot of people that could save some cash by simply upgrading their V-brakes. Like I said, not at all putting down discs, only saying that the braking performance of the Avids far surpasses what I assumed most v-brakes were like after riding my brakes that came on my entry level Trek (4300).
Anyway, thanks to the folks in here that steered me towards the Avid's and I'm hoping this post may give someone else the last little bit of convincing they needed to spend the $70 because much to my own disbelieve, it was worth it.
Now I just need to get the new levers installed. Anyone know of an effective way to cut cable/housing without a bike cable cutter?
