Brakes and Levers
 

So.... do the brakes and the levers have to be from the same company? I recognize there has to be some compatibility, as in short pull for cantilevers, but can Tektro only work with Tektro and so on?

Short answer is no. Fortuanatly you recognize that the brake lever needs to be compatable with the brake caliper regarding cable pull/mechanical advantage. You may want to post exactly what levers and brakes you are considering using for others to weigh in on compatibility.

The levers "communicate" with the brakes only via the cable which delivers the "instructions" via tension and movement. So all that matters is that the brake correctly translates cable tension and movement. It's a simple question of leverage and geometry and nothing else matters.

BTW - while there are rough classes of geometry, ie for canti's or V-brakes, or for single or dual pivot calipers, these aren't discrete, and vary slightly among brands. If you know what you want, you can sometimes actually improve performance by intelligent mixing of levers and calipers.

I run Shimano levers and Tektro cantilever brakes on my bikes. The cantis allow adjustment of mechanical advantage to an extent, so can compensate for differing lever pulls somewhat.

Amazonia, Short answer is no, levers and brakes don't have to be from the same manufacturer. They do need to have pull ratios that are pretty close, however.

I used a set of Suntour GPX levers with 600 DP calipers for quite awhile on one bike until I found a set of NOS 600 levers. Maximum braking didn't change nor did the lever travel differ much with the Suntour to Shimano swap. Light braking events had better modulation, not a great deal, yet noticeable.

Brad