V brake to road caliper converson plate

Yossie

Morning All

Dragging the old Ridgeback Storm off the garage wall to bolt on N2 child's seat to the frame, I remembered how rubbish V brakes are in both setting up and action.

Naturally the m/bike fork has no fittings for road calipers, but does anyone know of a conversion plate that you can get to fit one?

Ok, it would most probably be pretty ugly, but if it works then it could allow me to fit a road caliper then spend hours messing around wondering why it still doesn't brake properly with a road caliper and m/bike levers.

I've done a Google but to no avail: loads of weird BMX type discussions but nothing useful.

Any pointers welcome.

Ta muchly

Y

topdude

Forget it, V brakes are much better at stopping you than calipers.

monkimark

V-brakes are definitely better than road calipers and a lot better than road brakes on some kind of bodgit conversion plate.
You'd be better off googling how to set up v-brakes - I find them much, much better and 10 minutes messing about should have them working fine.

Yossie

I'll be heading Park Tools way then for a "How To" vid - I just look at them with a feeling of nausea with all these cable and shyt hanging out everywhere.

Cheers gents!

Monty Dog

Are you sure you haven't got cantilevers i.e. there's a seperate straddle wire that connects the tow brake lever arms?
You often need to be versed in the dark arts of cantilever brake set-up or simply fit vees - you'd have to be a bit cack-handed to fail to get vees to work properly.

Yossie

Cantilevers they be - all the mountain bike stuff is weird to me.

I presume then that they are worth junking and fitting Vs? Straight swap or are there equivalent short drop/long drop issues?

cycleclinic

Canti's can be very effective, it is all in the set up and the quality of pads you use but that is the same for any brake. As for set up the lower the sraddle wire hanger the higher the mechanical leverage. For low profile canti's like MTB's set the sraddle wire hanger as low as you can. You will get more lever travel but the brakes will work effectively. Set it high and the lever travel will be short before the pads hit the rim but it will require more hand strength to stop the bike. Also ensure your brake levers are the canti type. V brake levers give short lever travel and require superhuman hand strength to stop the bike quickly.

Wide profile (touring bikes/CX bikes e.t.c) canti's can have the sraddle wire hanger set high or low as the mechanical leverage does not change much as it rises when the lever is pulled.

There is no dark art to setting up cantilever brakes once you understand what is going on i.e how mechanical leverage changes as the straddle hanger is pulled up by the brake cable.

desweller

thecycleclinic wrote:

Canti's can be very effective, it is all in the set up and the quality of pads you use but that is the same for any brake. As for set up the lower the sraddle wire hanger the higher the mechanical leverage. For low profile canti's like MTB's set the sraddle wire hanger as low as you can. You will get more lever travel but the brakes will work effectively. Set it high and the lever travel will be short before the pads hit the rim but it will require more hand strength to stop the bike. Also ensure your brake levers are the canti type. V brake levers give short lever travel and require superhuman hand strength to stop the bike quickly.

Wide profile (touring bikes/CX bikes e.t.c) canti's can have the sraddle wire hanger set high or low as the mechanical leverage does not change much as it rises when the lever is pulled.

There is no dark art to setting up cantilever brakes once you understand what is going on i.e how mechanical leverage changes as the straddle hanger is pulled up by the brake cable.

No, but they're more awkward and less consistent; with Vs you can release the spring tension while you set the pads and cable clamp position, balancing them left/right is a piece of p1ss compared to cantis and you get the same mechanical advantage at the pad every time.

Yossie

As per Des - yes they brake well but they pissss me off as every time you take out the wheel. look at them they do so something random and it takes ages to set them back up again. And they have all these stupid wires hanging out everywhere.

I actually hate them and would spend full retail on something to replace them.

Pray, tell me more about these hallowed "V" brakes? Do they fit straight on? Tricky to set up? Can I use existing levers?

desweller

V-brakes work on a different leverage to conventional cantilever brakes, so require a cable mounting point that's twice as far from the lever pivot than cantis, but many brake levers have cable mounting positions for both.

Sheldon Brown

NB both brake types benefit from greasing of the pivot bearings on installation.