Liquidspacehead

So i am trying to fix up an old bike for my commuter. I have a bridgestone city limit. I have to re adjust the brakes because who I got the bike from didn't put them on right and cut the cable far too short. Now my question is, I also have an old Trek MTB that has really decent Vbrakes. And the city limit has cantilever. The distance from the bolt to the pads seems to be the same but I am wondering if I can put the v brakes on the bridgestone. As well as also bringing over the shifters. I have some pictures but I can gladly take more. I am going replace all cables and housing anyway so I will be stripping her down. I love the power behind the brakes personally and if this is a possibility in anyway I want to make it work!

cyccommute 

As long as you keep the v-brake levers with the v-brakes, it isn't an issue. Short pull (cantilever) brake levers don't work on v-brakes and vice versa so don't mix them.

Viich

I'd take the Exage cantilever brakes over the tektro v-brakes, but that's just me.

Cantilever brakes are referred to as a short pull, like road calipers, the v-brakes are long or linear pull. You shouldn't mix the levers intended for the brakes except for really odd situations - weak grip strength user, short pull levers on linear brakes is the only thing I can see making any sense, but you have to set the pads up extremely close to the rim to make it work. The cost is that it's hard to modulate braking.

Liquidspacehead

I dont think you understand my wording. I AM trying to bring the levers with the brakes... that's why posted pictures if the levers to begin with bud. I want to bring the shifters and the brakes to the new bike. Not separating them at all in any way

dedhed

The only other possible issue bringing the shifters over is the FD pull. Shimano indexed FD shifters are road and mountain specific. Given the Trek has V brakes it also likely has a Mt FD, I don't know what the BS has for a FD, so you may have to move the FD over too, or get a different one depending on what's on the BS. I'd at least try it and change the FD if that doesn't index correctly.

BobbyG

I had V-Brakes put on my old cantilever bosses a couople of years ago...
https://www.bikeforums.net/general-c...ke-update.html
BTW, this fall I converted the bike to drop bars. I used long-pull levers (as is recommended) and the brakes feel exactly the same, I mostly commute and I wanted interrupter/cross-levers on the upper bar as I have on my other two drop bar bikes. Since this is am old bike and keeping expenses down is a goal, I bought short-pull cross-levers. With the barrel adjuster all the way out, and a small brake-pad-to-rim gap the cross levers work well enough. I can lock the brakes if I want to (usually not) but it happens all the way at the "end of the line". And there is less modulation available with the short-pull levers. The main long-pull levers are unaffected and are still a joy to use.

I think it is the use of short-pull levers with V-brakes that have given them the "lack of modulation" reputation.

Retro Grouch 

The issue that nobody has mentioned is the rear cable routing.

Linear pull (V) brakes require a section of cable housing adjacent to the brake arm. Many bikes with candy brakes lack a conveniently located rear cable stop. The cheapest and easiest solution is to run a full length cable housing all the way from the brake lever and zip it to the top tube.

cyccommute 

I've done many of these kinds of conversions and never found there to be a problem with them. Bikes that have cable that runs from the handlebars to a hanger can simply be routed to the noodle on the linear brake. Bikes that have an interrupted cable arrangement can just run from the stop to the noodle. My Salsa

DSCN2007 by Stuart Black, on Flickr

has a stop for the cantilever.

93980010 by Stuart Black, on Flickr

I'd just bypass it if I wanted to added linears.

My Cannondale doesn't have a stop so I use a hanging stop on the seatpost bolt

2015-01-11 12.20.06 by Stuart Black, on Flickr

Putting linear on that bike would be even easier.

My Flashback has a stop and has had linear brakes in the past. There was not issue with the cable routing. The issue was with the linears and fenders.

_IMG4947 by Stuart Black, on Flickr
_IMG4950 by Stuart Black, on Flickr

I often will upgrade brakes at the co-op and have never had an issue with the cable routing. It's not really a problems.

Liquidspacehead

Forgive me for sounding so "green", but what does FD mean? I also plan to replace the cables and housing ANYWAY so this is mostly why I wanna try and ask about this now. I may just wait ti replace them with the v brakes until I have enough time at the co-op

dedhed

FD = front derailleur
RD = Rear derailleur

Retro Grouch 

Uh, wasn't the question about converting a canty brake bike to linear pull? Why would you reject my personal experience out of hand?

Could it be so you would have an excuse to show us pictures of your personal bikes all of which, by the way, have canty brakes? Nice bikes by the way.

Liquidspacehead

No sir it would not. I just thought I made it more clear is all. But I am not going to go through with this anytimeanytime I have the tektro brakes off the trek but the shifters failed out so I left them. But eventually I'd like to have some new shifters on the city limit. I threw the trek away today as it was just in too rough shape. I apologize for any hostility for I just did not do the best explaining, really any part of that message. Cantis are okay but I like the grip and skid of the Vbrakes. Probably not better in the sense of staying safe but it isn't too drastic. I would much prefer disc over all. But maybe cantis will have to do for now.. so this being the question. What cantis would you buy to upgrade the ones I have now?? I also have a salsa casserole in need of some new cantilevers as well. The tension screw was screwed all the way into the brakes in front and back until the spring snapped. From the previous rider... I have them adjusted to work but as you well know that its only a matter of time

Liquidspacehead

totally thought you were talking to me. My high ass... sorry bud hahaha

cyccommute 

I've never run across a bike that couldn't be converted to linear brakes easily. 99.99% of bikes have some kind of stop that can be used to anchor the end of a cable. The other 0.01% have some kind of guide that can serve a similar purpose.

Well, yes, any excuse is a good one but I did have an illustrative reason. You can see the upper stop on the cable on all three of my bikes. That's my point, there is a stop on every bike I've ever run across that allows for the cable to be anchored. There's no need to strap it to the frame with zipties unless that stop is damaged. I had an old Miyata 610 (1983) that had cable running from the front to the back under brackets but even that would be simple to convert to a linear brake without difficulty. Most every bike produced since then...up to disc brakes... has used a interrupted cabling system like on the bikes above.

And thank you . I try.

Wilfred Laurier

Retro Grouch
cyccommute
RG is right - there are brake cable routing arrangements that require additional steps to convert to V brakes. For instance, Kona steel hardtails had a built in 'noodle' cable guide for canti brakes instead of a cable stop at the aft end of the top tube, and this was not conducive to V brake conversions... I modified a few of these with acceptable results, but there are also clamp-on cable stops that could be used. There are other examples but I can't think of them.

Full length cable housing will also work, but the compression of a long run of housing is considerably more than between two cable stops welded to a metal tube and this will effect brake function.

cyccommute 

That was aimed at me.

Don't do that! Unless the frame is bent, any bike can be brought back from the dead. It only costs money. Even if it is bent, make sure you take the parts off.

Since you plan on keeping the shifters and levers, there shouldn't be a problem and the switch will be mostly trivial with respect to the brakes and only slight more complicated for the deriailers.

Far and away, the best cantilever brake I've used are Paul's. Yes, they are pricey (you can find them on Fleabay for less sometimes) but they are simple to set up and work very well. For that matter, Paul's Motolites are the best linear brakes I've ever used. Again, pricey but great brakes. Other quality cantilevers are going to cost nearly as much.

I would look for a brake that uses an external adjuster like the Paul's do. Avid Shortys have it and a few others. Look at the my 4th picture above and you can see a silver "nut" on the brake above the brake arm. This nut is what is used to adjust the brake tension and to balance the brakes. It's easier to use and less likely to fail than the screw type adjusters your brakes have.

cyccommute 

That kind of cable routing is extremely rare. I have seen a few of them but the vast majority have a cable stop on the frame. Liquidspacehead's Bridgestone City Limit has stops on the top tube from the pictures I can find of the City Limit online.

curbtender

Liquidspacehead, post pictures of your cable routing on the Bridgestone. It shouldn't be a problem.