Decent braking from drop bars with v-brakes?
 

Hi all,

I've put together a cyclocross type bike using the DiaComp 287-V drop bar brake levers and entry level (sub-Deore) Shimano V's. Needless to say the braking sucks. Can anyone suggest a way to make my bike stop better. I'd like to avoid switching to cantis if possible. Would better v-brakes (lx or xt?) make a difference? Lined cables maybe? Or are the 287-V brake levers just useless? Thanks for the help.

Start by ditching the sucky cheap unlined casing.

Road brake levers don't mesh with regular linear pull brakes to well. You can either get some travel agents to change the pull of the brake or get some shorty cyclocross linear pull brakes. I would get the shortys, the look is cleaner and the set up is cleaner.

Well I've thought about cantilevers more as a last resort if I can't make this setup work. Decent canti's aren't cheap and I've heard they tend squeal badly on 700c wheels. I had some cheap ones on an old MTB and did'nt like them one bit. In any case the DiaComp levers I mentioned are made especialy for v-brakes and should'nt need a travel agent. I will try some lined casing. Any recomendations on that?
Thanks for the help.

There is nothing wrong with cantilevers. You just have to know how to set them up properly. Try Sheldon Brown's website at Harris Cyclery. I have an inexpensive set of Radius cantis on one of my bikes and they function flawlessly.

As for the V brakes, try Sydney's advice and get a better set of cables & casings. Genuine Shimano or Jagwire make very nice cables. Did you adjust the toe properly? Sometimes it helps to file or lightly sand the pads to roughen up the surface. Are the rims clean? Dirty gummed up rims will cause the pads to glaze up or not get any kind of bite on the braking surface. There are a lot of things that can cause poor braking but in your case I don't believe it's the actual brakes. It sounds like improper set up.

Tim

Koolstop pads can make a big difference, too.

Start by cutting the housing as short as possible (without interfering with bar movement, of course) That matters a LOT. Clean and lube cable and housing, clean the pads (I use sandpaper), set the brakes up precisely (parallel to rim, as close to it as possible without touching), clean the rim. If all this doesn't help enough, I'd say buy kool-stop or other high quality pads, and only change the housing if the lever feels squishy even after shortening the housing (ie you can feel the housing compress).
Are the pads brand new? My new brakes sucked big time until the top surface wore off the pads, now they're fine. Sandpaper and file helped accelerate the process:)

Nothing wrong with cantis at all, it's just somewhat involved getting them setup just right.

I second the kool stop recommendation.

It sounds as if your brake levers are bottoming out, hence the need to constantly adjust them. If this is the case, are you sure you have 287V levers, not 287's? The latter pull less cable and would cause the symptoms you are seeing - they are designed for canti's, not v-brakes.

Decent cantis can be had quite inexpensively. IRD has a new set that look like Paul Touring knock offs - http://www.interlocracing.com/brake_canti.html. I have the Pauls and they are fantastic brakes. Easily the best of about half a dozen cantis I've tried. The IRDs look great.

I'm surprised to hear this because I just built my Surly LHT with the Dia Compe 287V levers pulling Deore LX V-brakes, using Dura-Ace brake cables. It's my first build so I'm a total newbie (did a HEAP of research first tho).

My braking performance is absolutely fantastic, I can lift the rear wheel at will while braking with the front only from high speed, and I can modulate that front brake so as to reach that point but not go over the bars.... I couldn't be happier with the setup. And I'll emphasise that I'm no expert, I'm sure a skilled mechanic could tune my brakes to perform even better if they wanted to.

Don't give up just yet, but go through your setup carefully, check that everything is as it should be. What cable are you using? is it top quality stuff? Is something flexing/stretching somewhere and soaking up your lever travel? The levers do work well, so do the V brakes, I'm sure you'll figure it out. You won't be disappointed once you do.

Wish I could be more help...

Chuck, these particular levers are designed with a lot more cable pull, specifically for V brakes. :)

I don't know if this helps you at all but I just went out to the garage with the digital and snapped a few shots for you.

You can see the front brake lever relaxed then lightly squeezed as you would under normal braking, the pads are squeezing the rim at this point, no chance of the lever bottoming out.... are you sure you have the right levers? (the 'V' model) check how far the cable pull point is from the pivot point and compare it to yours.

The other pictures are just the V brakes, maybe you see something there that helps you?

I just noticed my rear brake pad is crooked! :eek: :o

Thanks to everyone for their advice. I've got a lot to try now. I'm reasonably sure that I do have the 287-v brakes. They did come in an unmarked OEM type package but they seem to have some sort of adjustable cable pull on the front for using them with cantis I think. One last question- how do you clean and grease the inside of a cable housing and when should you replace the cable itself?

The 287-Vs he is using are designed to work with V brakes, and have a different pull than the regular 287s.

LBS...generic lined brake casing,bulk by the foot.

Mine don't have any adjustment for cable pull. If you're referring to that little black plastic cap on the fron tof the lever, it just secures the end of the cable from popping out forwards when you lelease the lever.

I missed the "V" I guess your problem is that they are spongy? I have found that the pads need to have almost zero toe. To the point that if you have the "mudscraper" flare, you might need to trim it back to get very little early pad engagement.
The cyclocross forks also tend to chatter. For some the trade off in poor feel(with more toe) is worth the thing not chattering. The spongee feel is kind of realitive anyway. Some of these things feel awful soft but will lock the brake with one finger. For one guy that liked a firm brake but it was to grabby, I took two hack saw blades and grooved the pad to reduce the friction area. This is not a trick I reccomend to everyone but has been used on motorcycles to drop the rear brake power.

Can I get some clarification on this.....new V-brake component will not work with road brake levers? I have some old road brake levers and drop bars that I wanted to put on my old MT. bike for a commuter. Can someone clarify?

From what Cyclaholic did it looks like it will work. Do ya have special brakes levers (cyclocross?)

Appolo,

First, check that you have the 287-V and not the 287 (no V) brake levers.

The 287-V have a black plastic piece at the top of the lever itself (see photo here: the piece has a tiny Allen bolt through it); the 287 (no V) doesn't have such a piece.

As far as brake levers, I have a similar set-up with 287-V levers and Avid Single-digit v-brakes on two bikes and they work flawlessly. And the v-brake design is so simple that I can't see why your Shimano brakes would work poorly. That being said, here are a few points to check:

– Get Kool Stop pads. They are an improvement over almost any other pads, but especially over Shimano pads.
– Depress the brake levers a few times and see whether or not there is some friction in the cable. If there is, the brake and cable doesn't spring back immediately when you release the lever. When there is friction, it's usually where the cable housing connects to the brake lever itself, and sometimes wiggling the levers (after loosening the bolt) is all it needs.

Well, I guess it remains a mystery. I definitly have the 287-Vs and i don't know if the cheap cables can account for it (though I will change them next time I change the bar tape). The bike does stop just not nearly as well as I'm used to with MTB levers and not as well as I'd like. I certainly can't raise the back wheel. Maybe I just have weak girly hands or something.