Mini-Vs

[papercorn2000]

I've bought a cross frame with canti mounts as a winter bike. Anyone have any experience using mini-vs with STI road levers. The guy in the bike shop reckons they won't pull enough cable to work well.
Just wondering if anyone has any experience ...

 

[Steve Austin]

I've got some on a bike. they work ok, not brilliant imo, but they work

 

[papercorn2000]

Spongy braking?

 

[HLaB]

I used Travel agents to improve the situation, Ill look for a link, found.

Links

a
b
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[Steve Austin]

There not spongy, i just don't like them. Need to run them close to the rims or the lever pull is too long. they stop well enough, just the set up is fiddly. I'm being a perfectionist on this one. I like my brakes to have minimal lever pull, and i've found it hard to set up with the tektro mini V's i've got.

 

[papercorn2000]

OK, I may transfer the mini-vs from my wife's bike just to get an idea of what they are like - before I invest in something pricey!

 

[MartinC]

Running mini-V's with STI's seems to vary a lot. They work fine but if the cable pull isn't sufficient then they have to be adjusted very close to the rims.

I run a pair (Campag mini-V's with 105 STI's) on a Trek 520 touring bike. They work fine without any adjustment problems.

I think the determining factor is how high the pads are in their adjustment slots. The higher they are then the more pad movement you will get for the cable pull supplied.

If you work out the geometry then you can see that an STI lever with the pad at the top of the sdjustment slot will generate as much movement as a V lever with the pads at the bottom of the slot.

The length of the arms is crucial too. Normal V brakes are 100mm high, most mini's are 85. 90mm ones aren't going to work as well. If you can get some shorter BMX ones they could be even better.

The only way to find out is to try it.

 

[papercorn2000]

I'll look out for some BMX ones, my LBS does do a lot of BMX stuff.

Ta folks.