Braking conundrum...

Paul 8v

Hi,

Someone on here will hopefully be able to help.

I bought this bike second hand last year and I've always had problems with the front brake. The vertical cable for the cantilever rubs on the gear cable when turning left which causes damage to the cable outer and eventually frays it. It also slightly applies the front brake when I turn (Never a great idea)

I've attached pictures so I can show what I'm going on about. I orignially thought maybe the frame was designed for V Brakes but it does have a hanger at the back for cantilevers.

One option I was thinking is to go to some Tektro mini V's which would hopefully solve the problem, the only issue I was thinking may come about is with mud clearance. The courses I ride have high clay content and the wheels seemed to get very gummed up. Do you think I will still have enough clearance with the mini V's or do I need to find a way round sorting these cantis? (I'm going to be swapping all the cables at some point anyway as I want some different bars and to get rid of those silly auxiliary brake levers I never use.

Any ideas would be welcomed

Paul



Cable rubs when the forks are turned and applies the brake


Boss for the outer cable is right on the head tube




Wondering if the V's will give me enough clearance, going to be using the same Michelin Mud2 tyre for Cross duties and a fatter tyre for gravel


Rear clearance

Ber Nard

If you're going to replace all the cabling then you could consider fitting a fork mounted cable hanger such as:

http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/raleigh-fron ... prod21510/

Should stop the wear and the extra outer cable won't be under tension so it won't apply the front brake in a turn.

I haven't used cantilevers in donkey's years but, as they were/are standard fitment on so many bikes, I'm sure someone will be along with a more obvious solution.

Rob

Paul 8v

Ah that might be the one then, a better solution than mini v's I think.It's nsuch an odd setup, I can't work out why that cable sits on the head tube rather than the down tube

devhads

It sits on the head tube to keep it away from all the mud when racing. My bike has all the cables running over the top tube but yours seems to have one running down the down tube. I guess that's the front mech cable as this would need either a top pull front mech (relatively new for road/cross bikes) or a pulley wheel attached to the seat tube for which the frame would have to be compatible.

FWIW I have mini-v's and although they do have less clearance I've never found it to be too much of an issue to tempt me to brave cantis in a race.

Paul 8v

Yeah, it's from the front mech. If the mini V's give enough clearance I might have to go with them as I've just found out the previous owner has rounded off one of the cylindrical alloy bits that sit in the end of the cantilever and hold the cable so I can't adjust it anyway :-(

Monty Dog

The braking on those cantis must be so spongy - the straddle wire is massively too high.
Mini-vees will be fine - I have some TRPs on one of my CX bikes and mud clearance isn't really a problem - I was riding mine in soft mud with a friend who was riding his Planet-X with discs - he got packed with mud first. Tektro 926 mini vees are pretty good for the money - replace the one-piece blocks with cartridge pad holders for more 'bite'

Paul 8v

Yeah, unfortunately I can't change it as the bolt has rounded off but yeah it is really high.

TRPs are Tektro's posh range aren't they? It should be OK with the ones i can get which is the RX5, has slightly shorter arms than yours (By 5mm) What size tyres do you run?