Oh yes, the 'B' word.

I have a new Mark V with the straight-blade fork; not curved. I measured the reach and it seems a little long. If you are running a front brake on your Mark V, are you running short reach or long reach brakes?

You're going to need a long reach brake - something in the range of 47-57mm. I threw an el-cheapo Tektro 520A on there. Interestingly enough I had to get an extra long backnut to mount it.

iam using a shimano sora but it does seem a little short and ive gone through the pad on which
it seems more short very fast like its almost dead and ive only had it a few months.
should i use a long reach instead? the guys at trackstar seem to disagree, any thoughts?

Wow. That first sentence is hella confusing. Yep, I said hella.

Reach to the rim should be identical between the two sides of your brake unless it's not set up correctly (either vertically in the slots or some strange centering issue.) Reach also shouldn't matter for brake wear unless the pad is rubbing on the tire (which will cause a pretty spectacular blowout in a few more miles.)

its not touching the tire
but its really really close,
i am gonna get a second opinion tomarrow

i'm pretty sure that most shimano's don't work with iro's, as they have a short reach.

Paging Dr. Tony...

Shimano does make a long reach brake. I have them on my IRO. I was barely able to get the nut started on the front. It needs a longer bolt.

I just ordered some Nashbar long reach calipers. Hopefully they'll do the trick.

I tried to go for the outer limit on tire clearance with a standard reach brake caliper. Seems not all brakes are created equal so some brakes calipers are coming up short. Real close to the tire. This is resolved with the next batch of forks coming out due out soon. You loose some tire clearance but get more brake choices.
Tektro standard reach calipers seem to work. If you ask nice I can hook you up.



Tony

get and file and 2 minutes later you'll be set.

i put on some tektros but they were for 27's dont know if that matters,
couldnt get them to grip real tight though. i went to the lbs and they said
that as for iro they need long reach for the front and short for the back.
they contacted tony at iro but he wont cop to the fault.
iam pissed.

this is a separate question from a previous thread i was in.
i have a iro mark v and i determined today that my shimano sora front brake
was too short for this fork. i have a tektro long reach brake that i was using
for 27inch rims and i tried to put it on this bike which is 700x 23 and i couldnt get
it tight enough and gave up in disgust. do i need to get a new brake or will
this one work out.
any help weclome.

its sad it takes so long to get a response to a real question, i guess the forum peeps
are more apt to talk about how whack shants looks or what a 14 year old boy had for
dinner today,wtf man.

with broke ass front brakes, like my tektro 520A which ran me $12.50 at my LBS, you really need to have them set up tight:

calipers can be adjusted fairly easily to close very tightly.

unscrew the nut that holds the brake cable to the front arm

press and hold the calipers together so that there's 3-4mm between the pads and the rim.

tighten the nut on the cable again.