Canti's vs V's

[Drake]

Please excuse me if this question should have been posted in technical .
I've been reading with great interest the various forums concerning brakes and braking problems,and as i've had limited or no experience with most braking systems,this has made me wonder which is best,(excludind roller,hub and disc types).
My personal braking experiences has been limited to three types . . side pull,centre pull and V brakes . The vast amount of MTB's i've seen, seem to be fitted with V brakes,other than the better quality machines which all seem to have disc . A large proportion of road bikes seem to have cantilevers fitted . . so this makes me wonder whiich is best . . or is it a question of "horses for courses".

[Swallow]

It may be a silly attitude, but with me it's just aesthetics, I hate the appearance of vee brakes.

[cricklewood_graeme]

I agree with Swallow: V brakes look awful and the cheaper ones can fail suddenly when the noodle end pulls through the metal stirrup.Having said that I have low profile cantilever brakes on my touring bike and they are poor cf V brakes for stopping power.

[Si]

With V brakes it's much easier to get a big fat tyre in there than with caliper ones (although there are a few long reach calipers availible), thus they are much better suited to mtbs and hybrids. No reason why you shouldn't use them on a light road bike - but it would mean having to have the mounts added (difficult on Alu and carbon, merely expensive on steel and Ti), and not being able to use STI/Ergo levers (without some sort of cable pull jigger).

Given the choice I would always go for Vs. I know that some find a good DP caliper as good as a V but when I had Ultegra DP calipers I found them not to be so.

[mattsccm]

I'd trade my V's for DP's anyday!

[Drake]

It may be a silly attitude, but with me it's just aesthetics, I hate the appearance of vee brakes.

I must admit they are not the greatest looking,but compared to side and centre pull i find that V's are more effective . l agree with the other gentleman about the possible weak area where the noodle fits . I'm thinking that a washer between the two might help to reduce that problem .

[hamster]

V's are simpler to set the pads up properly and the leverage is consistent with pad wear. Well set-up cantis are probably almost as good as V's, but the constant tinkering they require is irritating. V's can be a bit 'all or nothing' - for a powerful, controllable rim brake my first choice is Maguras.

[Drake]

V's are simpler to set the pads up properly and the leverage is consistent with pad wear. Well set-up cantis are probably almost as good as V's, but the constant tinkering they require is irritating. V's can be a bit 'all or nothing' - for a powerful, controllable rim brake my first choice is Maguras.

i'd never heard of Magura's brakes until you mentioned them . Hydraulic rim brakes ! Now that is amazing . What sort of wheel rim life would you expect .

[Vantage]

I knew a guy that had Magura hydraulic rim brakes and that was over ten years ago.
No matter how powerful your brakes are, they are resricted by the tyres grip and the point at which the bike tips over so rim life doesn't really vary.
Someone will no doubt prove me wrong...

[Drake]

I knew a guy that had Magura hydraulic rim brakes and that was over ten years ago.
No matter how powerful your brakes are, they are resricted by the tyres grip and the point at which the bike tips over so rim life doesn't really vary.
Someone will no doubt prove me wrong...

This makes me want to ask . . who developed the first bicycle hydraulic braking systems .

[hamster]

V's are simpler to set the pads up properly and the leverage is consistent with pad wear. Well set-up cantis are probably almost as good as V's, but the constant tinkering they require is irritating. V's can be a bit 'all or nothing' - for a powerful, controllable rim brake my first choice is Maguras.

i'd never heard of Magura's brakes until you mentioned them . Hydraulic rim brakes ! Now that is amazing . What sort of wheel rim life would you expect .

The rim life is the same as any other rim - the pads are still rubber like conventional brakes. The great thing is that the pads are a snap-fit, I literally did nothing other than snap new pads in on my MTB in 13 years - about as maintenance-free as is possible!

[Drake]

I did notice on the web site i looked at that the pads snapped on and off . I should imagine pads could be changed pretty quickly using that system .
The reason i'm asking about rim wear is because i would have thought that hydraulic brakes would create more braking force on the rim .

[Si]

Rims lasted ages with my Maguras - this was probably down to the fact that the pads appeared to be made of teflon and self lubricating. A simple squeeze on the lever was enough to bend the fork legs so plenty of power, but they just didn't stop the bike - worse than cantis in fact. Adding a booster stopped the bending butt didn't help the braking. I'm assuming that they improved somewhat after this first lot of pads....I don't know 'cos I gave up on them..still got one in the shed somewhere

[AlanD]

One of the bikes I bought (Specialized Tricross Sport) came fitted with V brakes and I would frequently need to remove the front wheel to get it in the back of my car. And there lay the problem. I like my brakes adjusted so that I dont have to pull the lever a long way before the pads make contact with the rim. However, getting this adjustment meant that there was not sufficient slack to disengage the noodle. The only answer was to replace the front brake assembly with cantilever, which I think looks far nicer from an aesthetic point of view. However, what I subsequently discovered was that because the V and canti brakes have vastly differing mechanical advantage/velocity ratios (gosh, don't think I've used those terms since CSE science) I am finding that I have to pull on the front lever far harder than the rear to get the same braking effect, which means that if I'm too quick about it I tend to go into a rear wheel skid. I suppose fitting canti to the rear would solve that one, but I just could not be bothered at this time.

[hamster]

Rims lasted ages with my Maguras - this was probably down to the fact that the pads appeared to be made of teflon and self lubricating. A simple squeeze on the lever was enough to bend the fork legs so plenty of power, but they just didn't stop the bike - worse than cantis in fact. Adding a booster stopped the bending butt didn't help the braking. I'm assuming that they improved somewhat after this first lot of pads....I don't know 'cos I gave up on them..still got one in the shed somewhere

There are several different grades of pads available, for wet, dry, anodized and ceramic rims. MTB Trials riders prefer them over all others as they have such positive holding. The black pads need a little time to wear in; alternatively abrading the factory pad surface helps, like on any brake.
If you want to sell I'd be interested in buying.

Maguras for me manage to halt controllably a loaded touring tandem towing a child trailer down a 1in 4 in Devon in torrential rain.