V-Brake and Canti brake lever compatibility

[Andy in Germany]

A customer came today with a bike bought from the workshop I'm taking over. He asked me to look at the brakes because they "Weren't working properly".

When he demonstrated the bike had Nexus 7 speed Brake/shifters, a cantilever brake on the front and a V-Brake on the back. The front brake wasn't effective, and the V-Brake was working well.

My understanding and experience is that V-Brake levers can't be used with cantilever brakes and I can imagine this ineffective braking is exactly what we should expect, but is that always the case, or are the exceptions, or other reasons a front brake may not be braking well?

 

[T4tomo]

V brakes need a direct pull 1:1 lever: canti brake levers pull a ratio of 3.5 / 4 :1 ish (compatible with caliper brakes) so that's why the front brake isn't working properly.

you can get a converter thing but it just frays the cable. better to get both brakes matching with the appropriate levers. If its a flat bar bike then switching it to all V brakes will be cheapest easiest route and easiest for customer to maintain. Personally i think Canti's are better but are harder to set up for a novice.

 

[presta]

V-Brakes use a lot longer cable travel than cantis because they have a higher mechanical advantage. If you increase the MA of the canti by lowering the apex of the straddle cable it should work better.

 

[Rusty Nails]

Perhaps It's a good time to set some new service standards now you're in charge to make things as simple and safe as possible for the customers. It cannot be a good idea to mix V and canti brakes on any bike sold, even a refurbished one. We don't even allow bikes to be sold with different valves on the inner tubes at our community bike workshop.

 

[Big John]

I've go cantis on one of my bikes and they work surprisingly well with STI levers whereas V-brakes won't. If you have a mixture of calipers, e.g. canti front/v-brake back, then you'd need a mixture of levers on the bars for the calipers to work. The bike has 'evolved' over time, probably due to a surplus of parts in the spares box 😉

 

[Andy in Germany]

Hello and thanks for the answers. I was 99% sure that was the case and it has confirmed what I suspected, not only that there was a problem with the bike, but also that one or two of the clients (who work here a few of hours a day to get some pocket money) are pretending they know more than they do.

Perhaps It's a good time to set some new service standards now you're in charge to make things as simple and safe as possible for the customers. It cannot be a good idea to mix V and canti brakes on any bike sold, even a refurbished one. We don't even allow bikes to be sold with different valves on the inner tubes at our community bike workshop.

That's my thinking too.

I'm 99% sure I know the client that fixed that bike, and when I asked him in detail later, he didn't know the difference between cantilever and V-brake levers, but he pretended he did; he was introduced to me as a sort of resident expert.

There's a bit of discontent rumbling amongst the clients, and one in particular (guess which one) is stirring things up. The Boss and the Manager and I will be "discussing" the matter with them next Thursday; then I'll be able to start clearing out the rubbish and bringing in some quality control...

 

[All uphill]

Hello and thanks for the answers. I was 99% sure that was the case and it has confirmed what I suspected, not only that there was a problem with the bike, but also that one or two of the clients (who work here a few of hours a day to get some pocket money) are pretending they know more than they do.



That's my thinking too.

I'm 99% sure I know the client that fixed that bike, and when I asked him in detail later, he didn't know the difference between cantilever and V-brake levers, but he pretended he did; he was introduced to me as a sort of resident expert.

There's a bit of discontent rumbling amongst the clients, and one in particular (guess which one) is stirring things up. The Boss and the Manager and I will be "discussing" the matter with them next Thursday; then I'll be able to start clearing out the rubbish and bringing in some quality control...

It's a lonely job, being the boss!

 

[Andy in Germany]

It's a lonely job, being the boss!

Ah but the huge paychecks, the power, and of course the glamour of the job makes up for it.

 

[rogerzilla]

Lots of Shimano flat bar levers, e.g. Tiagra, will do both types of brake. There is a little widget you move (usually clearly labelled) to select which type of brake you're using. It changes the fulcrum of the lever.

 

[mickle]

What Roger said ^^^

 

[Rusty Nails]

Lots of Shimano flat bar levers, e.g. Tiagra, will do both types of brake. There is a little widget you move (usually clearly labelled) to select which type of brake you're using. It changes the fulcrum of the lever.

This is true, and they have been about for years. One of the issues faced by community, or not-for-profit, bike workshops is that they try to fix bikes using spares out of their old stock so they have to make the most of that old stock to keep prices down. Mix and match becomes the name of the game.

 

[Andy in Germany]

Lots of Shimano flat bar levers, e.g. Tiagra, will do both types of brake. There is a little widget you move (usually clearly labelled) to select which type of brake you're using. It changes the fulcrum of the lever.

True, I've got just such a set on my Xtracycle, but as you say this has a clearly marked bolt that I could move if I was swapping brakes.

The brakes in use on that bike had no such fixture (and if they have, and I haven't found it, it wasn't used, nor was the client who built the bike aware of it.