Hi Thomas,I have a Bike Friday Air Glide with v-brakes (some Shimano, IIRC; came on the bike from BF) and I find the braking quite good and not squishy. My bike came from BF with a "travel agent" like roller, rather than the typical v-brake noodle. It is set up as a straight-through roller (without changing the pull ratio) and I think it is a strong factor in why the brakes feel so good on this bike. I recently had poor rear braking on another bike that was greatly improved when I swapped the noodle for the roller thingie.As always, YMMV!cheers,Andrew in Sydney Travel Agent
| | | | | | | | | | | Travel Agent The Travel Agent can perform a couple of different tasks; adjusting cable pull or serving as a roller to work ar... | | | or knock-off on Aliexpress for less than 1/3 the price... https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007261364499.html?spm=a2g0o.tesla.0.0.53aeyV2IyV2I5i&pdp_npi=5%40dis%21USD%21US%20%246.56%21US%20%244.46%21%21%21%21%21%402103244417552189359628765ed98d%2112000039983307074%21btf%21%21%21%211%210&afTraceInfo=1005007261364499__pc__c_ppc_item_bridge_pc_main__m7CVBiL__1755218936048 On Friday, August 15, 2025 at 02:15:57 AM GMT+10, '[email protected]' via RBW Owners Bunch <[email protected]> wrote: Hi, all. Here's a chance to join me in over-thinking something. And a chance for those-who-know-stuff to help one-who-doesn't. To me, "squishy" means the braking action doesn't seem as closely linked to my squeeze of the lever as I feel it could be. Definitely subjective, definitely "I know it when I see it", and definitely "YMMV" territory. The context is a diamond-frame (i.e. heavy rider edition) Bike Friday 2014 New World Tourist (has canti-/v-brake posts). It's only the rear brake (posts on the chainstays). The brake has always worked, just not with the solid feel of, say, the Paul Love&Motolite combination on my Hillbornes front and rear, nor even of the Paul Canti&MiniMoto front on the Bike Friday itself. (So maybe this isn't just "over-thinking" but also "whining".) Squish had been substantial from the beginning and through a couple each of pad-changes, brake-changes and lever-changes. The changes were "lateral" in the sense that the new stuff wasn't purchased as generally better, just different. The squish did vary some over those changes, but not much. Finally the squish moved from "substantial" into "moderate" territory when I moved to Paul Canti Levers; clearly the levers accounted for some squish. So... I have thoughts below on what might be the remaining squish reasons (to be ignored by those who know better): Do I just accept that the brake will have squish because - a brake with 2ish meters of 100% housed brake cable needs better-than-Jagwire-Sport housing - perhaps mitigated by better housing - the chainstays are flexing - perhaps mitigated by some kind of stiffener ("brake booster"?) - the posts are flexing - (no idea what one could do here) - the brakes I've tried so far (nothing special, not super-cheap but defintely not expensive) flex(ed) too much - perhaps mitigated by getting a Paul brake to work (I just assume a Paul would introduce less squish) or find some low-squish brake which just works as is - something else entirely - (?) Can anyone rank likely causes so that I could prioritize mitigation efforts? And I would definitely appreciate any suggestions for any mitigation choices (e.g. Which "better housing"? What "low-squishy brake"?). Yours,Thomas Lynn Skeanwho does like himself a stiff drink... uh, brake -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/3a0cb456-1cd5-480c-a8d2-2840fdf79215n%40googlegroups.com. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/1092475030.94047.1755219238126%40mail.yahoo.com.
