yabadoo

Hi,im just wondering if Brake Lever for V-brakes can be also use on a Cantilever brakes are they compatible? And what their differences. THANX in advancce.

DannoXYZ 

They'll work, but you'll have to REALLY SQUEEZE them HARD to get any kind of stopping power...

BikingGrad80

No V-brake levers pull more cable than canti levers.

Jeff Wills

Brake levers for V-brakes pull more cable with less leverage. Brake levers for sidepull, centerpull, and cantilever brakes pull less cable with more leverage. Some brake levers can be adjusted- Avid and this Tektro, for instance.

As Danno said, using V-brake levers with "standard" levers will result in a very hard pull at the lever and possibly minimal braking power. Using "standard" brake levers with V-brakes will result in adjustment issues (the shoes need to be very close to the rim) and possibly overly aggressive braking power.

DannoXYZ 

It's all about leverage. Do the following to compute mechanical advantage:

1. Db = Distance between pivot and cable on brake-lever
2. Dc = Distance between pivot and cable on brake-caliper

Leverage = Dc/Db

V-brakes have a longer distance between their pivots and the cable. To maintain roughly the same lever-travel and leverage, they have larger distance between the lever's pivot and cable.

When you put normal levers on V-brakes, you get incredible leverage, you can implode rims at will and lock up the front-tyre with a single finger. You're basically putting a lot of brake-lever travel into a little caliper-travel to multiply the force (think of a crowbar's different-length levers around the pivot). The thing is, you need to have the pads very close to the rim and there's less tolerance for out-of-true wheels.

Now, doing the reverse results in lower-leverage than normal. You put a lot less lever-travel (due to the longer cable-pull), into a larger amount of caliper-travel. You end up with just 1/2 the force at the pads compared to the previous arrangement. The really annoying thing is you have to put a lot of slack in the cable and the pads will be very far away from the rims order for the lever to move to the 50-70% range where you have more control and modulation; the initial pull feels like there's no brake connected.

dabac

Indeed. The front usually does OK, but the rear tends to be troublesome.

Never found that to be a problem. Sure, the brakes get fairly powerful, but it's no worse than, say getting back on a bike with aluminum rims after having ridden a steel-rimmed bike, or the differences encountered when braking in rain. All within the rider's margin of adaptation.

dabac

Well, I've run a couple of bikes set up that way and I don't recall anything that extreme ever happening, particularly that bit about imploding rims.
I suppose the one-finger-lockup could happen given a specific set of circumstances (lightweight rider with strong hands riding on loose gravel or something), but for a slightly more average set of circumstances it's been nowhere near as bad.

In fact, if it wasn't for the frequent adjusting needed to keep the lever from bottoming out when pads wear I rather liked the performance of a front V-brake together with a canti lever. Would do me fine for a bike that didn't have to travel long distances in one go.

Out-of-true wheels is a manageable issue, but reducing slack/slop in the system enough for the rear brake both to run clean and still provide decent braking w/o the lever bottoming out was a considerably bigger challenge. I'd probably try it again if ever I got hold of some Nokon cables to play around with.

yabadoo

Thanx Guys for all the info. It helps me a lot.