Adapting V-Brakes for older MTB's

[Andy in Germany]

I've been having some difficulties woth the V-Brakes on my MTB-tourer conversion: the front V-Brake in particular has always seemed lopsided, although it works fine. I remembered this afternoon that I'd seen this before on an old MTB frame which had been supplied with Cantis, because the forks were a little wider than on a newer bike.

Does anyone have a cunning method to nget around this? My method thus far was to insert two washers, one against the brake block and one against the screw nut holding the v-brake together, so the whole is a few mm longer. This seems to bring the system into a more typical alignment, and stops the bike effectively, but if someone has a better or slightly less crude solution I'm happy to hear it.

 

[All uphill]

Hi Andy, I've done the same as you, using spacers and having the v-brake arms pulled closer together than normal.

This seems to look and work OK.

 

[Smudge]

Have you adjusted the tension screws to make them sit right ?

 

[raleighnut]

^^^^^ Wot e sed

 

[Spiderweb]

As above, adjust the tension screws to achieve good alignment.
Can you post a close up pic please.

 

[Andy in Germany]

Have you adjusted the tension screws to make them sit right ?

Repeatedly.

I'm also aware that the wheel in question ay not be accurately aligned: Elder Son can make a straight wheel but if he had a slightly off centre wheel jig it would have affected it.

I'll sort out the washers and try again.

 

[raleighnut]

Have yours got the convex/concave washers and if so can you not use the thin pair/thick pair to balance the pads.