Rear wheels and brakes

have had trouble with the brake setup for my singlecross since day one. They were adjusted at the shop,, but I'm still not that happy. Does anyone have an opinion on the drop and cross lever coupled with vbrake setup!?
re-installing rear wheel, any procedures to folllow? being horizontal dropouts I'm doing it by eye i.e. making sure the wheel is straight in the frame. Tried trawling the net for a definitive method ,, to no avail.

What is it that you are not happy with?

Also are the drop brakes meant for v-brakes?(see the bottom of the page) - I'd guess they are if they came with the bike.

Try the park tool website

http://www.parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=21

V-brake = shimano's linear pull cantilever brakes (LPC)

LPC require long pull levers. Only a few companies make drop bar levers for this, tektro being the most common I think, I presume at least the main drop bar lever has the correct pull for the brake.

In line cross top leaver however are short pull, hence they don't work very well with v-brakes, but work fine with normal short pull brakes, i.e calipers normal cantilevers.

I've read of this exact problem somewhere else, person had good braking on the main leavers but shit on the cross tops, fuck knows why specialized stick cross top levers with v-brakes, they should stick to normal cantis or not put the cross tops on. Fucking retards.

the drop levers are Tektro, the cross tops have no branding , I'm assuming they are tektro also.
It seems that I'm having to fiddle with them on a regular basis. Not a sturdy config for a cross bike methinks. Tension lacking in general. Is this a common gripe with this setup or just my ineptitude?
I've contacted Spesh and they wont budge and blame setup; the store put them right temporarily. this is my commute bike on road and trail. It's great thing apart from the above.
any setup ideas,,, thanks to all for the advice so far.

You can get a little pully thing that increases the cable pull - see half way down on this thread... http://www.londonfgss.com/thread19308.html

I think it looks like this...

I have no idea how well it will work if ur running both drops and cross.

^ The problem with that is that it will effect the pull for both leavers. If the main leavers are ok it will screw them them.

Can you see which tektro model they are any where? Maybe on the side of the leaver facing the bar, stamped. Just to check the levers are the ones for v-brakes. I expect they are and it's just the cross tops that are normal pull.

Specialzed will never admit their wrong. Too costly.

Check your cable routing. Make sure it's as short as possible, but without being restricted or having bends which are too tight. You want a nice easy bend but not too long. Hard to explain Sheldon has some tips on cable routing. Also check the ends of the outer cable. They are frequently not finished properly. See Sheldon again for tips on this. Good cable preparation and finishing is frequently skipped by most people

Other than that it's a case of swap the brakes to normal canti and the levers to normal short pull area levers ,
or loose the cross top levers,
or except that the braking from them will be compromised and just try to get the setup as best as possible.

Personally I'd drop the cross levers.

Actually, re-reading your 2nd post lacking tension would suggest to me bad cables. Buy a good brake cable cutters, a file and re do the cables. This will not sort out the pull issues but should improve the tension issues.

well this is new to me but -
The guy at a local bike repair shop put in new cables etc new pads on the back (they were rotten with reconstituted aluminium)
but what interested me more was-
he switched the spacers on the brake pads so the fat one is on the inside. It's made a heap of difference with regards to maintaining tension and performance.
There's little squealing, the cable isn't under as much stress to the point of fraying and stretching. I can also remove the noodle with ease.
So as Tommy says new cables! coupled with this eccentric setup have cured(at the mo' fingers crossed) the damned cross brakes saga.
thanks all, enjoy the sunshine.

Took the cross tops out about three days after I bought the same bike. 100% improvement since. Now running fixed, even better.

i've resorted to keeping mine, especially since it's sorted. the bike now runs like a dream. like the idea of fixed but too many ups and downs in wales for that.