V-Brakes vs. mini-V... which is stronger?
 

Hypothetically, on a loaded touring bike, with the correct brake levers and kool stop pads... which would stop faster: long-pull V-Brakes or short-pull Mini-V's?

In this ideal world having stated "the correct levers" both set ups would have the same mechanical advantage. Therefore the same power and stopping distance.


But we don't live in that world. All the mini v brakes I've installed and serviced were paired with levers (almost all were drop bar levers) which really wanted a tad more cable pull to not have the levers bottom out when reasonable pad/rim clearance was set. The long pull v brakes almost (as in every time except home conversions) are set up with flat bar levers with better (matched) cable pull. So in the real world I will say the long pulls win out.


For drop bar levers the half dozen that I've installed with Travel Agents in the system and with long pull v brakes have been pretty nice. The only draw back (for me, an experienced shop wrench) in not the extra cable routing thing but the often blocking of the rear rack's stay mounting bracket. Andy.

Andrew,

A question.

All things being equal (yes they never are) the mini V-brake would want less pull than it's longer mate because the tops (cable anchor end) travel less than a longer arm would for the same show travel. So they could or should be mated with levers with a greater mechanical advantage (pulls less cable, but multiplies the force more).

So, assuming the OP leaves the same levers in place, the standard long arm brake would offer more stopping power for the same grip strength, though it would need more careful adjustment.

Of course, I might simply have misread your post.

Thanks Andy. I've used all of these combinations and the long-pull drop levers + standard V's felt the best, but I made some poor cabling choices on the other two experiments. I'm going to give shimano levers + several mini V lengths next... 80mm.. 85... 90..

There are plenty of people who have tried running V-brakes from Canti levers back in the days when MTB went from cantis to V- brakes.
The front would usually set up fine, but the rear often had a tendency for the lever to bottom out against the bar before wheel lock.
And yeah, they'd be more finicky. Didn't take much wear on the front pads before the front too bottomed out. One learned to remove/insert the wheel with tire deflated, as getting enough slack to unseat the noodle could be a challenge.
Still, completely rideable. For the front, even nice.

I have mini-Vs with Campagnolo shifters. The fancy TRP CX 8.4
These 84mm ones are the right size for my brake levers. Some road levers need 90mm brakes.

They work fine now. I had problems along the way:

I have the newer wide rims, 25mm external width. The brakes just aren't designed for these rims, the brake arms are tilted outward instead of being essentially vertical. The rims were too wide for even the smallest brake spacers that came with the brakes.

The stock pads were extremely grabby. I had to be really careful on hard braking, so I did downhills at a way slower speed than usual. Lots of squealing, too. I suppose this might be related to the wide rims and non-optimal geometry of the arms. But the pads are kind of cheap, I think.

I got low profile Kool Stop Salmon pads, Kool Stop Thinline. These work great. The pads have good modulation, essentially no squealing, and allow the brake arms to be vertical. It's a huge difference.

The barrel adjuster on the noodle works fine to set the pad spacing at the rims, and the centering adjustment on the arms is easy.

Removing wheels
The pads need to be adjusted quite close to the rims. This makes it hard to pull the arm link off the curved noodle, even with the pads squeezed onto the rim. But the Campagnolo brakes are actually perfect for this, since they have a brake release button on the lever, instead of down at the brake. So I can release more slack at the lever, then unhook the brake noodle very easily. Shimano brakes don't have this feature.

Even after releasing the noodle, I still can't easily get 40c tires off, it's a little too tight, but 35c slide right through.


Bending the noodle
My rear brake has a short length of housing and the stock 90 degree noodle made it stick out a lot, not the best angle.
I got a tiny pipe bender at Harbor Freight, 1/8" thru 1/4", for $10. It worked great to increase the bend to maybe 110-120 degrees. Perfect.

The OP gave no other stipulations then "Hypothetically". So that's what the first part of my reply addressed. In that world a perfect lever exists for a certain brake.


The second part of my reply gave my real world experience in that short cable pull levers mated to mini v brakes still suck. Way too much lever travel with no "bottom" to the pull. Sure they are very powerful but if the cable travel needed is not best realized by the levers then the pads rub or the levers bottom out before full power is had. Again in my experience. I'll add that I do like a firm lever feel, my hands have enough strength to stop with adequate brake "power" (and less then most "power").


Generally I find that bike handling issues are more limiting to the real life stopping ability then theoretical brake system "power". Road conditions, rider skill are more important in my world. Andy.

I was "sure" that my levers don't bottom out, but I just tried it on the bike stand. It's actually quite easy to pull the levers all the way to the bars. It's interesting that I don't notice this while riding.

And this is with the brakes set to a narrower gap than the thickness of a dime between pads and rim.

I don't ride heavy loads on this bike, so it works okay for me. It doesn't seem optimal for loaded touring. I've never used long V brakes since my old 1990s mountain bike, so I can't compare them.