Originally Posted by
Tamiya
In the very early days of V-brakes (early 1990s?)... didn't they also use the same/old brake levers as calipers? They were shorter travel with stronger pull, so early V-brakes did feel very on/off all or nothing.
No. One of the knocks on V-brakes when they were introduced is that they were not backwards-compatible with "standard" levers.
Within a year or two of their introduction, levers with dual ratios or adjustable ratios became available. I used Avid levers on my Tour Easy recumbent, which had a caliper brake in front and a V-brake in the rear. They worked just fine.