Hey, I'm a relatively proficient mechanic but this one has thrown me through a loop.

2000ish era Shimano V-brakes contacting an alloy rim in good condition

I've gone as far as adjusting the brakes all the way down to just nearly touching the rim, almost zero space between pad and rim, and when I pull the lever I can pull it all the way to the bar with relative ease. Feels too squishy. Pads contact the rim but I can just keep pulling the lever with no stop

It feels like running a short pull lever with linear brakes but I'm fairly certain the Deore XT levers I have are set to linear pull. I checked and both the front and rear lever are setup identically and the front lever works just fine as I would expect a linear pull brake to work.


Kind of like grabbing at straws here but any idea what to try next? Possible causes?

Check your cable-stops, cables and cable-housing. Make sure someone didn't put in SIS shifter cable & housing. Make sure you have ferrules at both ends of the housing. The housing could've been stretched out resulting in gaps between the coils. Your levers would then be compressing the housing each time you squeeze, leading to more travel than necessary.

Danno's posted my thoughts even before I saw what he wrote. I'm also presuming your anchor bolt at the caliper is tight and there is no cable slippage.

Check the noodle to ensure the plastic liner wasn't pulled out accidentally and discarded.

And what kind of levers are you using on these v-brakes?

Keep in mind that a rear brake is almost always "squishier" than a front due to the extra length of housing.

As DannoXYZ said, examine the cable housing, but not just externally. A bad end cut with a burr will cause spongy brakes. These can be spotted if the housing moves slightly sideways when the lever is pulled. Filing or grinding the ends flat will fix it.

I'd also take a hard look at the routing. Remove any excess and make the runs as smooth and flowing as possible. Sharp bends allow the flat-wound housing to expand, and when pulled will compress again.

Although you should never use STI housing for brakes, there is a "linear" housing made for BMX bikes that is also flat-wound and gives much less compression.

Thanks guys

I didnt mention also, I looked over the housing originally and found that someone was silly and used shift housing. I replaced that with new Jagwire plastic lined brake housing. Still the same problem! Ferrules where needed, noodle has its plastic, anchor bolt is tight.
The levers are Deore XT M7XX (something something)
I'm going to double check all the housing

It sort of comes back down to the brake levers. You may want to compare the pivot to cable end distance of these to some other known good ones.

I've also seen some frames and forks that are flexible enough that they just distort under the pressure and that can induce a lot of sponginess. But it's rare to see it at both ends and to be as soft as you seem to be describing. But just in case check for flexing in the legs and stays while you put on the brakes.

Or could it just be some very stretchy cable?

Wow, thanks for reminding me to check flex in the frame. The whole damn seatstay flexes, what the hell. This is a mid-to-late 90s Cannondale M200 frame.

It would seem to me switching to standard cantilevers would help this situation (and I'm fairly sure this bike was originally specced with them too). Sound like a good idea?

You may be onto something there. If you look at how the straddle cable pulls on the cantis there's a lot of force pulling in on the brakes that doesn't lever itself off the pivots like V brakes do. With V brakes it's a pure and simple lever while cantis will split the force at the pads between the posts and cable so the frame will fles less.

As another member mentioned in another thread Tektro Oryx brakes are sweet cantis as they use V style pads instead of fumbling with the old posts and washers like with the non threaded pads of yore. Even better and more old school yet are the Tektro 720's where the straddle cable sits out even further and where the geometry puts even more of the compressive force onto the straddle cable and less into the posts.

IMO you'd be better off getting hold of a brake booster (horseshoe-shaped thingy that connects across the brake bosses) instead. Both cantis and V's strain against the stays, so there's not much to be gained there.

Well I switched to Shimano centerpull cantilevers and they work great! No flex now and brake feel is good, can lock the rear relatively easily.
So I think Illl just leave the V-brake up front.

A booster would have done the trick as well. If the looks would have been OK.

THe fact that it's working well enough to lock the rear fairly easily and feeling better also suggests that the brake levers were actually canti levers. If so then both the wrong cable pull amount along with the flexing of the stays would have made it REALLY mushy.

Heres the bike



Still pretty sure the levers are V-brake. Its just that the longer pull of V-brake levers shouldnt really affect short pull cantilevers. Conversely though, v-brake + cantilever lever, does not work well at all.

Did you buy the bike like that?

It appears to me that a suspension fork was added to a non-suspension-corrected frame. I'd love to see what the head angle is.

You may also want to switch the rear brake lever to the cantilever setting. Adjustable pull levers are nice for mixed brake setups like you have.

It's likely been jacked up a little but the rear chainstays are level. And level or very slightly angled down towards the BB is about normal for MTB's.

Yeah, it's a slack angle but it's comparable to a lot of the freeride bikes these days.

i think you're on crack. that fork's axle to crown is far too long for that bike. that bike was originally spec'd with either a rigid fork, or a 63mm suspension fork. for christ's sake it's got 3-arm CODA MAGIC cranks on it...and a quill stem. BB drop has nothing to do with head tube angle and proper fork length. it's also a HARD TAIL...from the early '90s. not a modern-day freeride bike. sure, a lot of modern-day bike designed to take a 5" or more fork have slack head tube angles, but an entry-level XC hardtail from the 90s sure isn't. the owner runs a serious risk of the head tube sheering off, or at the very least, cracking the weld at the downtube/headtube junction.

OP, please listen to this man.

All the manufacturers that I am aware of recommend a fork travel change of no more than 20MM in length...and that's for frames designed for suspension forks. You appear to have an exceptionally long travel fork on that bike, and handling or appearance issues aside, it may not be designed to handle the additional leverage. While I can't tell for sure that this is your case, please...do us all a favor and check into it. Your very life could depend on it.

Shimano never offered XT brake levers that were convertable between center and side pull cantilevers. I seriously suspect you've got center pull levers. The front brake feels ok due to the short length of housing.

The very first V-brake XT levers were model BL-M739, while the STI versions were model ST-M739. If you've got the M738 or lower models, they're for center pull brakes only.

frame flex and s***y housing