By tension I mean the tension in the cable when you apply the brake. The reason levers for V brakes pull more cable is that the brake mechanism has a greater mechanical advantage. The brake lever has a lower mechanical advantage to compensate for that. Net result is similar force on the pad with less tension in the cable. Now this can be called a design decision but it is the way all the brakes we call V brakes are made. When the same general layout is used without the long brake arms and the higher cable pull levers they get called something different, like mini-v brake, to differentiate them from "normal" V brakes.
Regarding the "link wire" design for cantilevers, color me ignorant. But it sounds to me like a sort of hybrid design. If it doesn't have a straddle cable I wouldn't have thought it was appropriate to call the thing a cantilever brake. Not much difference between a mini-v brake like the coming Paul mini-motos and a low profile canti with a "link- wire" design. Seems to me that "dual pivot" side pulls are center pull brakes with a side pull style cable. If we didn't call those center pulls, why do we call cantilevers with v brake cables cantilevers? On May 11, 9:18 am, Joe Broach <joebro...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Thu, May 10, 2012 at 8:43 PM, ted <ted.ke...@comcast.net> wrote: > > One of the key features of V brakes is that the tension in the brake > > cable is lower that that in a cantilever, side pull, or dual-pivot > > brake. > > You lost me here. What do you mean by "tension in the brake cable"? If > you're talking about brake return spring tension, that's just a design > decision and not inherent in the style of brake. Modern brakes of all > sorts have much lighter return springs. My early 90s Shimano cantis > have the same "tension" as the Avid v-brakes on the tandem. But > maybe I misunderstand. > > > Also if the > > brake cable fails a V brake will stay open where as with cantilevers > > if the straddle wire catches on tire nobs it may lock up. > > Again, not inherent in the design. Lots of cantis use Shimano's "link > wire" design that runs the main cable directly to one of the canti > arms. If the main or link cable breaks, the brake opens. And, as you > say, not a big deal anyway. > > > What I find really inexplicable is how many folks seem to get so very > > wound up about this stuff. > > For a long time, it seems like new bike gear was just assumed by > default to be better. I like that among groups like this new stuff has > to earn it. OK, now that I think about it, the fact that v-brakes > still qualify as new technology here is pretty funny. > > I've tried v-brakes on 3 bikes and have liked them OK. For me, they > stop the bike about the same as nice medium profile cantis, squeal > about the same, set up easier, and are really ugly. Ugly probably > shouldn't matter on a bike, but for some reason it does. > > Best, > joe broach > portland, or -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
