mornview

Hi all,

I got a 90's Kona HumuHumu frame second hand. It has brake bosses; not sure if it ran canti's or v-brakes originally but it should be fine to run either.

I'm planning to run some 26 x 2.125 tires Sun Rhyno Lite rims and some SKS 65mm fenders for commuting. My main concern is if there is anything I need to look for when choosing v-brakes so that I can clear those wide fenders. Any recommendations? I'll update this shortly with the reach measurement, but being a cruiser I anticipate it being a relatively long reach. I'm not looking at any of the high end, $200 v-brakes, but I'm open to some of the moderately priced options as this will be a heavily used commuter.

Thanks!

FastJake

All V-brakes (except mini-Vs) have the same cable pull and therefore the same clearance. I remember using 2.1" tires and fenders years ago with V-brakes. But keep in mind you may have to use cantilevers. Wide profile cantis are better here because putting the straddle cable way up high doesn't change the mechanical advantage.

wesmamyke

Somebody had a chart that listed the exact arm lengths for this reason, I can't recall what site it was on.

I wound up with these, as they were close to the longest, and very cheap: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Tektro-857A...U6GwqmgluJVPZQ

They clear a full 2.1" with SKS P65 fenders.

mornview

Could you give some examples of wide profile canti's to get me started?

I have very little experience with rim brakes; I've used coaster brakes on all my prior commuters but I want to give this a try. I've been very open to the idea of using canti's, however general consensus is that v-brakes offer considerably more power, hence my decision to go that route.

mornview

Perfect, thank you for your recommendation! How have the brakes performed for you?

wesmamyke

The pads they come with are terrible, but they work great if you swap those out.

mornview

Sorry for all the questions, I'm relatively new to rim brakes ☺️. Any recommendations on replacement pads?

79pmooney

If you like your brakes and brake setup and find that the fenders you have and like don't clear, it is not hard to cut them to allow the brake to operate unimpeded. Be sure however that you make the cut cleanly and have a nice round inside to your cut./ (Maybe two shallow parallel hacksaw cuts that aren't deep enough, finishing with a round file.) If the front turns out to be not stiff enough and vibrates as you ride, you could probably pop-rivet or screw a SS tang to the underside, starting the tang at the two rivets for the bracket to the fork crown and running forward.

SKS makes high quality fenders, but they are stiff and on the brittle side. Care to avoid the start of stress cracks is important. Cutting into the sidewall of the fenders to accommodate the brakes can be done successfully and the fender will still go a long time, but poor work will kill it. I did this on the rear fender of the bike in my logo (not on the bike in that picture) and added fiberglass reinforcing on the underside of the fender at the cuts. End result is rock solid; as good as a new fender only now about 2" longer front to back so I can slide the wheel anywhere in the very long dropout and not have to adjust the fender.

Ben (who has modified more fenders than he can recall)

Novalite

I'd chose plastic fenders and cut these out.
Then drill holes in them to attach whatever, along stiff wire (alike insulated single steel core of clothes drying lines), in order to recreate the fender around the V brakes.

wesmamyke

Almost anything is better than the stock pads. I use Swiss stop, but those are really hard to find in the US. The easiest to find is probably Kool stop pads.

veganbikes

For good braking make sure to use a replaceable pad/shoe combination rather than a one piece set up. That shoe will provide stiffness which is what you want when braking then find the highest quality pad you can. My favorite pads are SwissStop but I haven't used their "V-brake" pads just Road caliper pads for linear pull brakes I use KoolStop usually double or triple compound pads. Also use good cables and housing something with slick stainless cables that aren't coated. My favorite cables and housing are the Jagwire Pro kits or the Elite kits, they come with everything you will need and are not super expensive compared to replacing actual brakes or levers.

If I was looking at linear pull brakes, Paul Motolites all the way...granted a big part of that is they come in purple and are Made in 'Merica. They are also good brakes with a ton of adjustability to potentially fit a wide range of wheel sizes but really Purple 'Merica is all you need!

tomtomtom123

The Shimano brt4000 are only $20 for 2 pairs including pads. I find them better than the OEM tektro arms, which has the spring digging a trench into the back of the arm with the way it's routed. The brt4000 has the spring out to the sides so they don't rub against the arm.
The specs says 107mm arm pivot length compared to the 113mm tektro, which isn't much difference. The clearance will depend on how far your brake bosses are spaced apart to each other, the distance from the boss to the drop out, and the thickness of your brake blocks. You could do a simple measurement to see if the 107mm is long enough by measuring the distance between the boss and the top of the rear fork where the fender will touch.
i have sks 2.1" fenders which are somewhere between 55 and 60mm width on 55mm tires and there is enough space for the brt4000, but it may be very different on your bike.
I can easily cut notches into sks fenders to get around the giant welds on my stays. Mine has a layer of metal foil sandwiched between 2 layers of plastic so they didn't crack when cutting. They broke up into small pieces only in the area where I was cutting.

FastJake

Tektro CR-720 is a typical go-to. Though I've had mixed luck with them, including some of the worst brake judder I've ever experienced. I still need to shim the arms on the posts and see if that cures it. No amount of toe-in can fix it.

If you go back to the 1980s or earlier, nearly all cantis were wide-profile. Dia-compe, Mafac, etc.

fietsbob

Or add brake pad spacers so brake's pads meet the rim before hitting the edges of the mudguards..

Replace (?) the cable brakes with Magura's HS 33 hydraulic rim brakes..






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