The brakes on my 2011 kona jake are utter poop, even combined with the good kool stop brake pads I have added - what experiences do you have with difference brakes?
I used to like my tektro cr 520/720 brakes for decent stopping power but changed to mini v's which were much more powerful. The cantis did have a slightly better, more progressive feel but the v's were in a different league. The rim distance wasn't an issue for me with the v brakes either.
Dunno what brakes you have at the moment, but if they are cantis in good condition (and cabling also) and inadequate bite / stopping power is the issue then 99% of the time you will get vastly improved performance if the straddle wire can be shorten as far as it can clear the tyres/mudguards. The 1%, figuratively speaking, accounts for cantis with unusually wide profile.
Mini Vs seem to have great reviews all round - with the only issue seeming to be mud clearance. After my last cyclocross race, I'm going to be building up a singlespeed for really muddy races next year (quite fancy an on one disc braked machine - it just makes sense!) , so lack of mud clearance on this bike isn't much of an issue. They have got to be better than these kore sport calipers I am running at the moment - I've tried all sorts of adjustment, increasing and decreasing the mechanical advantage etc, with no joy
I am sorry Montage but if you had told me they are Kore Sport (like pic below in profile?) I would have been able to tell you that adjustment is pointless... I am afraid it has the profile I said won't work in my earlier post above. You see they have nearly the same profile as the Wide profile canti (the blue one) in the calculator here. As you can see by adjusting the yoke (you can move the Y up and down with your cursor on screen) it makes zero difference to MA (mechanical advantage), because the curve is flat for pretty much any yoke height till it hits the tyre, it is because the design is such that point A (the cable attachment) is below/level to point R (the pad). You MIGHT be able to change its characteristic marginally, IF the objective is to increase MA, by setting the pads as close to the calipers as possible (by swapping spacers or quit using any, or using thinner pads), kind of like trying to turn it into a medium profile canti. But these are last ditch fettling and might do more harm than good (like pad not hitting square on the rim, or metal pad holder digging into the rim etc.). Canti's if properly set up with suitable levers are no less powerful than any rim brake- it is the same physics. Mini-Vs will give you a whole new set of problems as you said, and disc can mean new wheels if not new forks - but of course YMMV. Hope it helps.
Thanks for the help recordace.... one of the most helpful posts on the internet I've seen regarding choosing cantilevers - and that picture is exactly the same as what I am using.
hmm not student loan friendly - but I'll be looking into them if the £20 mini Vs turn out to be crap - nothing worse than buying a bunch of different brakes for £20 + when you could have just spent £140 in the first place.
I have tried old style Avid shorty 6, new style shorty 6 and Kore cantis as in the picture above with std pads, kools stops and swissstop pads with differing straddle lengths and various toe in combinations. None had adequate braking or lack of squealing. I now run tektro mini vee's RX5's and they work work well with shimano pads and cost about £20, they do run close to the rim which could cause a problem in muddy CX conditions. I can't speak about Avid Ultimates as I haven't tried them.
If I could possibly ask a newbie question... Why, if the brake arms are the same shape as any other type, would they be better than normal ones? The brakes on my caadx are utter rubbish. I can't put discs on and I've put very good pads in to no avail, so I'm on the lookout too. Cheers
