sjanzeir

So, the Litepro V-brakes that I swapped in are starting to show their quality (or lack thereof) with sticky sealed bearings and broken springs. Time to look elsewhere.

So I've been looking at some erstwhile Shimano V-brakes and have a few questions.

Which of Shimano's premium V-brakes (LX, XT, XTR, DXR...) would you say has the stiffest arms?

Shimano say that the DXR is to be used as a rear brake only. How gory would my demise be if I were to install one out front?

Why are some Deore V-brakes marked "front" and "rear"?

What say you of Shimano's entry-level V-brakes, such as Acera (BR-M330) and Alivio?

Are Shimano's "parallelogram" types really riddled with too many issues to be worth the trouble? (A lot of talk here and elsewhere about pivots wearing out too quickly...)

rosefarts

Is this for another bike? I thought your BIL’s Excalibur was your new ride.

I wouldn’t waste time or money on the best V-brakes. Anything that still uses them probably isn’t still living the life of a high performance race rig.

Any modestly priced Tektro will be a perfectly fine replacement.

Your brakes probably aren’t beyond repair. Lube in the pivots, new brake pads, and new cables and housing is probably all you need.

Buy new if you want, they aren’t expensive. Make sure to put new cables and housing on the new ones too.

sjanzeir

Thanks, but checking the link to the original thread would've put things in context... This is for my Dahon Mu. I put in new cables and compressionless housings when I installed the Chinese V-brakes in April. I'm looking for a quality replacement this time around, but I'm not looking to shell out hundreds for Bombshells or Bull's Eyes! LDCs look like they're very stiff and I very much like the fact that they're American-made, but $80 per wheel is still a hard pill to swallow.

As for my BIL's X-caliber, there have been some developments that forced me to put my plans for promising career as a pro mountain biking world champion on hold for a while. I not prepared say anything more than that at this point, I'm afraid.

rosefarts

I think you are thinking too hard.

I think you screwed up replacing your brakes the first time. They sure sounded like they were good enough the first time.

Those BMX brakes are nice but on your bike, I doubt you’ll notice any difference between them and some $25 Tektro’s. If you still have them, just put them back on.

sjanzeir

But I did notice a difference, and it was significant! Look, I know you're trying to help, but for the love of God, check the other thread for context before you make assumptions! Thanks anyway.

tungsten

I got a roller-cam brake I'll let go for the right price.

Schweinhund

From your other thread, roll up a piece of fine garnet paper and gently reem out the brass bushing if they are too tight to fit the post on your frame. lube the post as well.
I run a set of Deore XT V's on the front of my bike, they will launch you into tomorrow. Great stopping power, I run them with Avid-5 levers.
Front and rear brake pads are different on the Shimano's (others too) and they designate so there is no confusion.
The Alivio's should be as good as about anything else, but considering there is very little difference in price, go LX, XT or higher.
Shimano brakes normally come with a cable, but verify that with the one you pick before depending on it.

georges1

I have been using exclusively XT-780-Trekking Vbrakes and XT 780T V Brake levers since 2016 , outstanding power and much more reliable than the XT and XTR V Brakes with deformable parallelograms. I have plenty of spare XT-780-T spare pads. Go with apair of Deore LX Trekking or XT Trekking V brakes, rock solid and reliable performance over the long run

Schweinhund

George, check the marketing, lol!
Most v brakes will twist the mounting posts before any distortion occurs.

georges1

I have known a guy in the past riding a GT LTS with deore XTR 952 groupset and vbrakes at a competition level, his vbrakes after a whole competition season needed a complete rebuilt and he had to change pads every month, the mountings mounts on his gt frame didn't suffer damage but the brakes always needed constant attention.I have seen MTB frames with Vbrake mounts that didn't suffer any damage despite being not babied. Maybe I am wrong.

Schweinhund

Were you right next to him mirroring his every move? was he doing a comparison side by side? An absolute for you is a variable for someone else.
I know a guy... Tell me of your experiences, not secondhand news from a guy you know.

georges1

I didn't mirror him at all since I was never involved into MTB racing. From my own experience, I never observed this phenomena with any of my mountain bikes, I always have ridden them mostly the weekend on trails but never encountered the problem of twisting mounts on any of my frames as you described .

Schweinhund

These are all mine. All have crushingly good brakes.

veganbikes

So V-Brakes are Shimano's trademark for their Linear Pull brakes nobody else is making v-brakes they are making linear pull brakes. Shimano makes some linear pull brakes these days but gone are the XTR and XT largely from the market you can find Deore and below pretty easily but XTR is long gone and XT is sometimes found in trekking group sets usually overseas. Which in your case might be easier to find.

If I want the best linear pull brakes, they are Paul Motolites, anodized purple being the strongest of them all (kidding but 3DV is the best color) though if you get a set of Deore's and a Jagwire Elite Link or Pro brake kit and use KoolStop or Swiss Stop pads you will have really excellent braking. Deore stuff is usually pretty cheap but great quality. I have used them a lot and not really had issues braking. My main use of them is with a set of Speed Dial 7 levers from AVID and they are fantastic for the price. Certainly the Motolites and Love Levers are the absolute dream but I wouldn't sneer at a properly set up set of Deore with the above accoutrements.

DXR just for those curious is a BMX brake so it was only designed for a rear brake set up for racing as generally most BMX race bikes are rear brake only as front brakes are not required (at least not in UCI competition). I am sure you could probably use it at the front but I would just get Deores and not worry about it.

Schweinhund

Go to this page right here https://www.paulcomp.com/shop/compon...akes/motolite/
What's the name there?
I am not saying you're wrong, but I'm not either. I type v brakes because I'm a two finger typist and it's less characters.
EDIT: I try to type less because I got a flesh eating bacteria in a paper cut and it ate the inside of a couple of fingers.
No joke.

georges1

Very nice collection of mountain bikes

veganbikes

So what is the point they weren't calling their brakes V-brakes. They were talking about people still running them.
Paul still correctly categorizes them:
SHOP | COMPONENTS | BRAKES | LINEAR PULL BRAKES | MOTOLITE

I am skeptical of the flesh eating bacteria but maybe it happened and if so that sucks. There is some new thing that I saw that some company (or wannabe company) is trying to crowdfund to help with typing maybe it would be of help? Normally. I would link directly but I don't like linking to crowd funding platforms: https://www.coolthings.com/charachor...-typing-speed/

Schweinhund

V-brake is a generic term, not unlike whiteout or freetos or zip ties or anything else like them.
I don't give a damn if you're skeptical of anything.

veganbikes

But it's not though V-Brakes are a trademark of Shimano: https://trademarks.justia.com/747/19...-74719391.html
Wite-out: https://trademarks.justia.com/724/50/wite-72450352.html
Fritos: https://trademarks.justia.com/715/30...-71530491.html

There is no need to be skeptical there are the trademarks that have been legally filed and awarded. I mean it is literally called the Frito-Lay Company. I get that some people have decided that they are generic names but they are still registered trademarks of their respective companies meaning they are not generic.

They are linear pull brakes or direct pull cantilever brakes unless made by Shimano or licensed by Shimano and then they are still linear pull brakes but they have the Shimano trademark of V-Brakes which again is still registered and renewed since 4/29/1997.

Not really sure why anyone has to doubt this (and not just you) the information took me only the time it took to type "are V-BRAKES a shimano trademark" and the second link on google got me the info in about .41 seconds.

Plus if anything were a v-shaped brake it would be cantilevers as they do kind of form a "V" shape. Direct pull brakes are more of a squared off U shape or box shaped sort of deal

Darth Lefty 

V brakes hardly warrant this level of nerdout

veganbikes

One could make that argument for the whole forum. I wouldn't but one could. It was about a couple minutes of it all not really a long process mostly just some typing quick searching and a little more typing and done on bun.

Darth Lefty 

I mean that it’s a solved problem. There are garbage ones and ok ones from Shimano and Tektro and there are Pauls for raffish misanthropes with too much money. The day of XTR versions was long ago and brief.

Schweinhund

Veganhoser decided he didn't like vbrake the term. so tried to correct what doesn't need to be corrected.

veganbikes

No what happened was people don't know the difference between reality and the things they have made up with their mind. V-Brakes are active Shimano Trademark for their version of linear pull brakes. I don't see why people need to change that in their minds when we know the facts.

You even tried to claim other trademarks are some how generic terms someone made even though one of them is literally the name of the company that makes them. It is dumb.

sjanzeir

What was this thread about again?