V Brake Setup

[rab shropshire]

Hi I have decided to give rear v a go, so far I have sourced an avid sd5 calliper and lever but cant decide which cable is best. I done a search on here but came up with nothing, any help would be appreciated

[Luke Rainbird]

Something along the lines of a linear slic outer (which is much the same as Shimano's oversized gear outers), lube the lot up nicely, job done

[rab shropshire]

thanks for the quick reply, thats the outer sorted, now what about the inner i have heard jagwire is decent

[Luke Rainbird]

I've not really ever found the inners to make a huge difference, though I know that some other people really have which does make sense.

For the past 2 years I've been running 60p Wilko inners and they've been great!

When fitting any brake cables though, I always go through the routine of coating the inner in a thin layer of grease (take some in your fingers and run the cable through them. This spreads it very thinly and nice and evenly along the cable - you don't want any clumps of grease at all, just a small amount to keep things smooth) and spraying a load of WD40/GT85/spray lube of choice down the outer. This gives everything a nice lubed coating to start with, as well as helping to clear out any crap inside (I've not changed outer in about a year, I've had absolutely no need to)

Personally I use Ultimate arms as I got them for a great price but the SD5/7 arms run on a bush. If you pop a tiny amount of grease on the vee bosses on your frame/fork, this'll also help keep things nice and free-moving for a smoother brake - less of your energy will be going into overcoming excess friction.

When you fit the arms, wind the spring tension totally off first. This'll let you set up the pad distance from the rim with the cable before you then increase the tension to centre the brake and give the desired feel at the lever.

Hope that helps a little, any more info just shout

[ogre]

my vee is being really shit, the callipers are really slow to return i think it's cause i've tried to use a gear cable instead of a brake cable. as a few people have suggested on here. does it need to be a specific gear cable?

[Luke Rainbird]

Are you using an inner and outer gear cable (occasionally they turn up with the right end, though usually not) or just the outer?

I'm not 100% which outers will or won't work as I've always just stuck to products labelled "brake cable" since it seemed fitting for the job, though I haven't heard of people having any issues with the Shimano SP51 stuff that's often mentioned as it's oversized.

Has the problem only been present whilst you've been using this cable? If you're often fettling with it then it could just be that a load of gunk has got inside your outer which is making it a bit sluggish - does there feel like there's more resistance at the lever?

Edit: This is the Shimano stuff: http://www.onyourbike.co.uk/Shimano-Sis-Sp...69-2#googlebase

[LEON]

Don't use gear inner it'll snap.

[Matt Burrows]

Must be 5mm gear cable, most is usually 4mm. But unless you get the decent Shimano stuff I'd stick with a linear bmx cable. Always use a brake inner wire, I've had gear inner wires jam in the lever before causing a nasty faceplant