Bestest ever bicycle brakes... ?

[djnotts]

Such lengthy answers. Many interesting and informative.
Short and direct: Avid Arch Rival Vs. Experience and opinion only you understand!

[Bmblbzzz]

In the words of Ian Dury, 'there ain't half been some lucky barstewards'!

Clever, not lucky. This at least is a verifiable fact!
https://youtu.be/PPvRsLWlDXw

[KTHSullivan]

Would you lot start fighting if you were face to face, if this had been a pub discussion, would you have been at each other’s throats by now?

sorry but each type of braking has it merits and it’s flaws and different systems do fit different applications.. so please stop WWIII and taking every comment so literal.

I’ve just left another group because I couldn’t stand the constant bickering and sniping, I really quite like this one if I avoid the political threads .

Well said, people on here do on occasions get a tadge het up.

[simonineaston]

Speaking as the OP, I can remark that I simply skip the pissy posts. Not much point in reading them, sent as they often are, in haste... There's an unwritten business rule - never send an angry email...

[recumbentpanda]

When I first discovered v-brakes I thought they were great -so logical and simple!

Then I discovered how hard it is to get and keep the b*****rs centred.

First there's adjusting the fiddly screws that, like derrailleur limit screws, are an obscure bicycle engineer's joke, being specially designed to fit a screwdriver that does not exist.

Then you despair and start bending the springs to adjust the tension quicker, or dismantling them and trying the alternative location holes . . .

. . . and dismantling them again to see if it's corrosion or dirt making one of the pivots sticky . . .

. . . then concluding it's friction in the noodle pipe . . . or the brake cable . . .

And by the time you've fixed all those, one or other of them will have gone wrong again.

Bah, Humbug!

[[XAP]Bob]

The best brakes are the ones that are used, and therefore maintained well enough to use.

[pwa]

When I first discovered v-brakes I thought they were great -so logical and simple!

Then I discovered how hard it is to get and keep the b*****rs centred.

First there's adjusting the fiddly screws that, like derrailleur limit screws, are an obscure bicycle engineer's joke, being specially designed to fit a screwdriver that does not exist.

Then you despair and start bending the springs to adjust the tension quicker, or dismantling them and trying the alternative location holes . . .

. . . and dismantling them again to see if it's corrosion or dirt making one of the pivots sticky . . .

. . . then concluding it's friction in the noodle pipe . . . or the brake cable . . .

And by the time you've fixed all those, one or other of them will have gone wrong again.

Bah, Humbug!

I think you had some duff ones. At the other extreme I have a pair of the now discontinued Shiamno XTR vees with a complicated linkage that ensures the pad always stays square to the rim as the pad wears down. And they have always stayed centred. You get good and bad in any brake form.

[Brucey]

a very common problem with V brakes is that the cable run to the brake fouls on something or is strained in one direction; if so this messes with the brake centring in an apparently unpredictable fashion. Another is found on shallower rims which is when brake blocks wear to give a lip; the lip can snag on the edge of the rim and cause the brake centring to go off.

Yet another common issue is if the springs bear against tabs half way up the arm and the spring rusts or gets dirty; the tab should get s drop of oil from time to time and if it does the brake will hold centre better (same deal with older side-pull brakes too BTW).

If the more obvious things (like binding pivots and shonky adjusting screws) are attended to, the above issues cover most of the rest.

cheers

[recumbentpanda]

a very common problem with V brakes is that the cable run to the brake fouls on something or is strained in one direction; if so this messes with the brake centring in an apparently unpredictable fashion.

Yup, had that one too!

And while I’m being splenetic, what about that time when naughty Weinemann put a hexagonal stub on the front of their side-pull caliper bolt, and surrounded it with a plastic bezel so you had to use their special ‘negative allen key’ tool to centre them?

Those plastic bezels got sawn off pretty quick!

[iandusud]

a very common problem with V brakes is that the cable run to the brake fouls on something or is strained in one direction; if so this messes with the brake centring in an apparently unpredictable fashion.

Yup, had that one too!

And while I’m being splenetic, what about that time when naughty Weinemann put a hexagonal stub on the front of their side-pull caliper bolt, and surrounded it with a plastic bezel so you had to use their special ‘negative allen key’ tool to centre them?

Those plastic bezels got sawn off pretty quick!

In fairness to Weinmann it made centring their side-pulls a doddle.