Road fixed / fixed road

Nor on road even, I believe Shimano is being over cautious in this instance.

@youramericanlover 's build

1 Attachment

I have a bike with BR-353s and 6600 road levers. Power is good but you have to set the pads up very, very close to the rims or you’re forever adjusting cable adjusters mid-ride.

Great minds ... :) that’s really quite a similar setup to my PreCursa. Beauty in utility.

Got my new fork sorted and put a mount point for the dynamo light way down low so went for a canti instead of mini v.

Look at that pad clearance, you could...well not quite drive a bus between the pad and rim but you could definitely get something in there, and the lever feel is still bang on.

#cantilover

1 Attachment

ah, interesting. so mini-v against canti, it is easier to have good clearance between pad and rim if adjusted correctly? seems to be the case with the post above from @M_V

Cantis won’t need pads run as close, no. But they also don’t really work.

They’re just about fine for racing cx (where room for mud is far more important than stopping).

#dbadlyfe

went for a canti

RIP

Meh, cantis are fine if you’re running fixed and you don’t mind adjusting them once or twice as the pad wears down and you backpedal down big hills so you only use the brakes as a last resort. And if you avoid the hills altogether, cantis are positively great.

if you avoid braking altogether, cantis are positively great for insta likes

Sounds about right

But they also don’t really work.

Bollocks.

That canti easily betters the mini v it replaced.

Anything better than the Tektro mini v it replaced, especially single pivot caliper brakes.

I had BR353 with Cane creek drop levers on my All city and they were very good, would recommend.

also had them with Trp levers and guess what? also very good.

(sorry its not fixed)

Haha, perhaps.

To be honest though, it wasn’t the power that was lacking from the Tektro mini v for me, it just wasn’t a satisfying brake to use. Pads had to be too close to the rim, spring tension had to be wound right up or the noodle sat funny meaning it was heavy to pull and/or straightening the cable run used up a load of lever travel.

I did notice that I have what I thought was a bike’s worth of the same brakes but actually they are a bit different, different length and shaping to the arms.

Either way, the Avid Shorty canti will stand the bike up on the front wheel with minimal effort so that’s enough power for me.

I will say I’ve been under whelmed by the Shorty brakes in the past though. Had the two sets of them fitted to my klunker, being pulled by old school odyssey levers and the power was pretty shite.

Got a Dia Compe DC988 canti on the front and a Suntour Pedersen SE on the rear of that bike now and they work much better.

I do find cantis are a bit more sensitive about what lever you pair them with like that. A lever can work well with one calliper but not another and vice versa. Maybe it’s a mismatch in the pull ratio of the levers or maybe it’s to do with the geometry of the brakes, v brake type pads only really having two positions where the standard smooth post canti pads are more infinitely adjustable.

Looks really good, I should build mine back up in RF but it's currently in silly poser bike mode.

53? If so I may have a Futura fork if the other one doesn't pan out (205mm ish).

hnnnnng

Thus compressionless and Shimano mini v mean pads doesn’t need to be that close to rims.

(Avoid Shimano aero levers tho).

1 Attachment

Thanks, I've put a few miles on it in this setup over winter. Really happy with it.

Yes 53. I'll drop you a PM.

Out of interest, what's wrong with the Shimano aero levers? That's what I've been using with my Shimano CX-50 cantis all winter long and they've been great.

Well it's been a winning formula for me so far ;)

The levers itself flex noticeably, it still work as advertised to be fair.

It’s less noticeable with cantilever with the shorter pull.

thanks to @Cupcakes I have sourced some calipers now need to find the fabled Sram S500 levers for ultimate stopping power!

so the combination Shimano mini-V (do you know the refernce? is it one of the references mentioned by tester above) with Sram S500 worked well for you? no pad close to rim problem and the breaking is better than canti?
I am currenlty wondering what brake use on a next build, would like to keep SS levers so probably mini-V but wondered if it was really better than canti (I only ever used dual pivot caliper so genuine question)

Although I've not used it directly I have heard that a good combo if it will fit over your tyre is Sram S500 levers with TRP CX 8.4 mini V brakes.

I use those levers with TRP CX9 and the pads are a bit close to the rim, but have really good power. The CX 8.4 has a shorter arm which means the pads can have a bit more clearance, and should still have plenty of stopping power.

Any, I got the cheapest one which is the 353, I have spare Yokozuna Reaction compressionless housing which eliminates any flex in the housing, but can’t see why not a normal compression less housing won’t work.