Originally Posted by
Doug64
V- brakes have a weakness when used on flat bar bikes. With a flat bar bike the front wheel can be rotated until stopped by the front brake cable. If the force is great enough, It will bend the brake's noodle hanger which can cause problems. The hanger can be bent back only a limited numer of times before the metal cracks. This ruins the brake, and is a safety item. I replaced a lot of brakes for this reason.
I think you are both making somewhat spurious “safety” arguments. Yes, the cable bridge on a linear brake can be damaged but I’ve never seen one damaged because the handlebar is turned too far. I’m not even sure how that could happen. The bridge is located where it would be difficult to have it contact any part of the frame. You might be able to turn the wheel far enough to wrap the cable around the headset but that’s user error and not something that is going to happen all that often. A lot of the damage I’ve seen done to the cable bridge comes from people not understanding how to remove the cable properly. People tend to pull the end of the noodle out of the cable bridge and end up damaging it. But that’s user error but not something wrong with the design.
Originally Posted by
Miele Man
A safety issue with V-brakes? Uh huh, okay. How about the safety issue with cantilever brakes with a straddle cable and yoke wherein if the front brake cable breaks the straddle cable goes down onto the front tire and locks up the wheel causing a wipeoout? This has happened a number of times which is why either an L-shaped piece or a front reflector bracket is used under the straddle cable or why Shimano and others now use a different system for cantilever brake cables that eliminiates that straddle cable.
People who have NOT done much setting up or adjusting of cantilever brakes often find it hard to adjust them properly. A lot of those people don't even know what a properly adjusted cantilever setup looks/feels like. For those inexperienced people, V-brakes are often much simpler to setup or adjust.
Cheers
How many examples of the straddle cable coming loose and dropping down onto the wheel can you cite? How many of those are due to installation errors? I’ve been using straddle cables for 40 years in some pretty demanding conditions and I’ve never even had a cable slip if it is properly anchored. That even includes triangle straddle cable hangers that used very tiny set screws to hold the cable in place. It might happen but as with the cable bridge example above, it’s a user error, not a design flaw.
I agree with your comment about people who haven’t worked on cantilevers don’t understand them but that is true of much of bicycle mechanical work.