May be a silly question about brakes...

[mrandmrspoves]

I am also a little obsessions about these things and would find it distracting to have the brake unequally adjusted - even if functionally perfect. The issue with V brakes is that when very finely adjusted, the weight and pull of the brake cable affects the balance as soon as the brake is applied and pulls it back out of balance. You can sometimes partially solve this by how the cable is routed but the only effective solution I have found is to increase the tension on the springs so that they are able to exert enough pull to overcome the cable tug. This does mean that they require slightly more pressure on the brake lever but not enough to be particularly noticeable. To make this adjustment both adjustment screws need to be turned clockwise a few turns and then fine adjust by backing off (turn anti -clockwise) whichever side is nearest to the rim. It is worth applying and releasing the brake 2 - 3 times regularly while making the adjustments.

 

[mjr]

Have a read of Sheldon on this.

A small note on this: the so-called Shimano method of cable tension adjustment is under the "shoe adjustment" link on there, not any of the links about cables. (And to save you clicking through, the adjusting barrel is the one usually on the lever of V-brakes, or where the cable enters the brake on calipers.) I'm not sure if that's from Sheldon's debatable view of what adjusts what or if later editing has left the pages a bit confused.

 

[simongt]

As has been mentioned, the pivot points on v brakes will fill up with crud which can prevent even braking.
Take the arms off the bike, attack the pivot ends with a 13mm paint brush liberally dosed with parraffin. You'll be surprised how much can accumulate. When clean & dried out, apply plenty of grease into the pivot assembly, reassemble back onto the bike and that should make a fair difference.

 

[ADarkDraconis]

Thanks, everyone! I opened up the pivot points and made sure everything was clean and moving good. One had a bit of crud buildup, it hadn't been affecting the performance yet but it is nice to know everything is running smooth and I may have prevented future sticking.

After tightening the screws until all pads touched the rims I then backed up on the screws to create a proper gap and did this equally for all 4 pads to create the same distance from the rim. I tested the distance with a spacer slid under each and they are as close as houses. Not perfect, and I'm sure they will shift around eventually during braking and undo all my hard work, but I feel that the OCD in me is somewhat satisfied!

 

[Ajax Bay]

I sometimes find flipping the front wheel can improve this.

But surely then the tread will be facing the wrong way, with unknown adverse consequences.

 

[C R]

But surely then the tread will be facing the wrong way, with unknown adverse consequences.

This is a particular problem when the tires have big obvious direction marks on the side walls, the photonic drag on the arrows turning the wrong way can be the equivalent of a 40 mph headwind.

 

[Vantage]

But surely then the tread will be facing the wrong way, with unknown adverse consequences.

Other than when venturing off-oad or on snow tyres, tread on a bicycle tyre is completely pointless.
The effects of the tread direction have little to no effect whatsoever on its performance.

 

[mjr]

Other than when venturing off-oad or on snow tyres, tread on a bicycle tyre is completely pointless.

Come ride through leaf mulch or tractor droppings and say that.

The effects of the tread direction have little to no effect whatsoever on its performance.

That's probably still true, though.