robertmccormack

Does anyone have Paul Minimoto V-brakes? How much more powerful are they than Shimano LX cantilevers from the late '90s?
Btw, I'm looking at the Minimotos because I can use them with my road levers.

bboy314

I haven’t used the minimotos, and I’m sure they’re fantastic. I will say I’ve done many thousands of miles of mountainous touring with LX cantis and found them to be plenty powerful. Good pads and proper setup go a very long way, as with any cantilever brakes.

mstateglfr 

How much more powerful?




- there is no way to actually know because a huge unknown in all this is how the canti brakes are set up. A lot are underwhelming due to not being ideally set up.
- Vbrakes and Mini-Vbrakes are usually stronger than canti brakes in their initial bite/grip. This is a generalization, but it also continues to be said for a reason.
- A lot of ground can be made up between poorly performing canti brakes and Vbrakes by using quality pads with the canti brakes.


Paul minimotos cost $360 for a pair.
Tektro rx1 brakes cost $40-50 for a pair. Quality pads cost $20. So $60-70 for a full setup.
...just saying.

shelbyfv

I put a lot of effort into a canti to mini V conversion and IMO it was a waste of time and money. Mini Vs have compromises, including reduced clearance and modulation. I suggest researching thoroughly before you commit. It's been a few years but when I was shopping there were better choices than Paul's. Cartridge pads, more adjustment, etc. I think mine were TRP. The Paul's are unique and do suit a certain aesthetic.

RH Clark

Get your straddle wire as close to the tire as possible and fine tune your cantilever brakes. I've found V brakes don't require as much set up to get good breaking and I've always had slightly better breaking with V brakes but not enough better to justify very much expense or time changing.

msu2001la

I went down this rabbit hole 10 years ago when racing CX on rim brake bikes. I tried both narrow and wide set cantis, and also used the TRP CX9 for a while (which is a similar mini-V design as the Paul brakes). I eventually switched back to cantis and settled on a pair of Avid Shorty Ultimates which are fantastic.

Mini-V's are definitely more powerful and easy to set up. The downside is that the brake feel is pretty terrible. The levers feel a bit mushy and vague when engaging so it's hard to feather the brakes gently, which can be an issue on slippery surfaces (like those often encountered during CX races). The other main downside is that you have to run the pads super close to the rims, so your rims have to be perfectly true and any tiny amount of sand, mud, rocks, etc will jam up.

msu2001la

Totally agree.
Learning to properly set up my brakes, and buying higher quality brake pads was key to making canti's work for me. I am able to get the same "power" from cantis with much better brake feel, mud clearance, etc.