Ergle
Über Member
- Location
- Warlingham, Surrey, UK
The brakes on my bike are not good at all. It's a Thorn Sherpa bike with drop handlebars, Tiagra STI levers and 26" wheels. I also have interrupter levers on the tops because I like to ride on the tops sometimes. I never brake on the hoods - it's too awkward.
I did have Avid Short6 cantis front and rear, but couldn't get the brakes to be nearly as good as my Specialized MTB, which has V brakes. The MTB brakes are great - with just two fingers on the levers the bike stops on a sixpence.
I tried swopping the V brakes onto the Sherpa - no good (yes I know you're not supposed to but I had a free afternoon). I adjusted the Avids so that the straddle wire was as flat as it could go - still no good.
I then tried a pair of sticky out type cantis on the front - I bought a set of Tektro CR720's - these got great reviews from Chris Juden, CTC's technical officer. Still no good.
The brakes are seriously underpowered against the MTB. I've calculated the mechanical advantage by measuring finger travel against brake shoe travel. The bar top is comparable with the MTB at about 4mm finger travel for 1 of shoe travel. With the hoods, it is 6:1 which is half as much again as the MTB so should be better. I've cleaned the rims with Scotchbrite - even tried the MTB front wheel on the Sherpa- makes no difference.
I haven't tried the MTB levers on the Sherpa - this would involve changing to flat bars, which I don't want to do. I haven't tried different pads such as Kool Stops - I will try this eventually, but think the problem is more than can be solved with a change of pads. The CR720's came with new pads of course.
I've put some pictures of the setup below - I'd welcome some ideas as to how to solve this - I've run out of them.
I did have Avid Short6 cantis front and rear, but couldn't get the brakes to be nearly as good as my Specialized MTB, which has V brakes. The MTB brakes are great - with just two fingers on the levers the bike stops on a sixpence.
I tried swopping the V brakes onto the Sherpa - no good (yes I know you're not supposed to but I had a free afternoon). I adjusted the Avids so that the straddle wire was as flat as it could go - still no good.
I then tried a pair of sticky out type cantis on the front - I bought a set of Tektro CR720's - these got great reviews from Chris Juden, CTC's technical officer. Still no good.
The brakes are seriously underpowered against the MTB. I've calculated the mechanical advantage by measuring finger travel against brake shoe travel. The bar top is comparable with the MTB at about 4mm finger travel for 1 of shoe travel. With the hoods, it is 6:1 which is half as much again as the MTB so should be better. I've cleaned the rims with Scotchbrite - even tried the MTB front wheel on the Sherpa- makes no difference.
I haven't tried the MTB levers on the Sherpa - this would involve changing to flat bars, which I don't want to do. I haven't tried different pads such as Kool Stops - I will try this eventually, but think the problem is more than can be solved with a change of pads. The CR720's came with new pads of course.
I've put some pictures of the setup below - I'd welcome some ideas as to how to solve this - I've run out of them.