I have purchased a vintage Burley tandem and would like to change it from a road set up to a mountain type setup. I have a set of XT v brakes not being used and wanted to put them on the tandem. I have replaced cantelevers with v-brakes before with no problems but in this case when the brake is put on the bose the angle is vey wide open and there seems to be no space to set up the pads. What I'm I doing wrong?

V-brakes and cantilever brakes pull a different amount of cable- if you're using the original canti-brake levers with v-brakes, then the lever pulls only about half the cable it needs to to operate the brakes properly. The brakes will be very hard to adjust for pad clearance from the rim, and will feel really spongy. You'll need a pair of "travel agents" to convert the cable pull ratio, or you'll need to change to v-brake type levers.

But, properly set up canti brakes are exactly as powerful and reliable as v-brakes. After all, they're mounted on the same mounts, and their pads are the same size. If you want more leverage, then shorten the straddle cable, but it comes with the cost of less adjustment room and clearance.

Thanks for the info

I was going to suggest that you were using road/cantilever brake levers with v-brakes and explain what has been explained but I shall not since its been explained. However I think that cantilevers look better with a road style bike than v-brakes. v-brakes just look more "mountainy' to me.

How old is the Burley? The distance between studs (meaning how far the stud is away from the rim) for mounting the brakes has changed over the years. Newer cantilever and linear pull brakes will not work with the older standard. If you use a very skinny rim, you might be able to get them to work, but not the best. The symptom is as you describe, the arms will be angled out and it is difficult to get the pads to hit the rims.

If you want to use linear pull brakes, there might be an option. The new Shimano CX-xx brakes might work. They are made for cyclocross. Shimano has moved the arms out farther than other linear pull brakes for mud clearance. To get the pads to hit the rims, they use a long spacer. These brakes come with different spacers and by using the shortest of the spacers might give you enough clearance to use them with the older standard.

Magura HS33 is a great Rim brake , hydraulic, so the rear one will not suffer,
for it's being, on a tandem, so far from the brake lever ..

bose the angle is vey wide open?

maybe you need to submit a picture of what you cannot type?

Thanks this helps a lot. The age of the bike is not known but the Burly rep I talked to thinks it is the from the first year they were made. I will take a look at the Cx xx to see if they might work.
Thanks again

Sorry, I made a mistake. The CX-xx series are not linear pull, they are cantilever. But the rest is correct. Even though they are new, they might work with the older standard, but so would your older cantilever brakes. I don't know of any new linear pull brakes that will work with the old standard.

I will post pictures tomorrow when I get home and it will be a little clearer
Thanks for the replies

I know this is the mechanic's forum, but why not just run the original cantis? Mountain bikes rocked cantis for years, and although they are obnoxious to set up, they do tend to brake adequately when you find that sweet spot. Further, it sounds like this bike is, if not quite collectable, a very cool older bike. Why not keep it OG?

-rob