Pushing The V-Brake Arms With My Legs

[zoster]

hi!

i always had this problem. i push the v-brake arms with my legs and it's annoying as hell. on my most recent frame i put the mounts facing down, hoping it would help, but it doesn't. i still "brake" involuntarily quite a lot but in a different position then when they were facing up.

i would have 2 questions:

1. if you are running a v-brake, do you experience the same problem?

2. what could i do about it?

i tried both disc and maguras, and i dislike them for various reasons, so i'll stick with v-brakes.

one thing i could do is get one of those cane creek direct curve v-brakes, but i don't know how good they are for trials use and they don't come too cheap.

another thing i could do is get a narrower back rim, like this one, which would also take about 150g off my rear end (if the quote is accurate), but not completely sure this would solve the problem.

i am now using avid ultimates on a dx32 rim (39.1mm wide) and my mounts are 95mm apart. the pads are pretty worn, they have the narrow cups on the inside, and they site quite low on the brake arms.

thanks for taking a look!

[Luke Rainbird]

What length BB are you running?

[Ali C]

in what situation are you hitting them? I LOVE vee brakes, but I found when riding street with spins and stuff, I could hit the brake from time to time and landing with any side force would make the brakes hit too. I just went to Magura despite my hatred for them.

There is a couple of things you can try, the narrower rim as you said (and yes, the weight will be correct). The ultimate arms are not all that great in my eyes, I found the bearings go notchy after being applied to forces in directions the bearings are not designed for thus making the brake impossible to setup with both pads hitting at the same time. Plus they are quite fat, replacing them with some Shimano LX or XT arms will make you able to move them more out of the way,

I tried Cane Creek cantis before, I also found it impossible for them to be set up so the pads hit together, one arm would always hit before the other.

What pads do you have? TNN backings are the narrowest you can get plus they have the recess in the backing which takes the place of one of the conical washers allowing even more room.

[zoster]

What length BB are you running?

the 56 chainline howitzer bb

in what situation are you hitting them? I LOVE vee brakes, but I found when riding street with spins and stuff, I could hit the brake from time to time and landing with any side force would make the brakes hit too. I just went to Magura despite my hatred for them.

There is a couple of things you can try, the narrower rim as you said (and yes, the weight will be correct). The ultimate arms are not all that great in my eyes, I found the bearings go notchy after being applied to forces in directions the bearings are not designed for thus making the brake impossible to setup with both pads hitting at the same time. Plus they are quite fat, replacing them with some Shimano LX or XT arms will make you able to move them more out of the way,

I tried Cane Creek cantis before, I also found it impossible for them to be set up so the pads hit together, one arm would always hit before the other.

What pads do you have? TNN backings are the narrowest you can get plus they have the recess in the backing which takes the place of one of the conical washers allowing even more room.

i use these acor pads (probably the same as the inspired slim ones)

yeah, about the bearings of the ultimates, they aren't smooth at all any more when i checked them by hand. when installed they seem to work fine.

i have some cheap shimano v-brakes, i could give them a try (although i was hanging to the ultimates for the lack of wobble they provide, but what can you do...)

apart from the pads not hitting at the same time, how did you find the cane creeks?

thanks for answering!

[Ali C]

I didn't really use the Cane Creek arms, once I found I couldn't get the pads to hit properly, I sent it back.

[Luke Rainbird]

the 56 chainline howitzer bb

What's that in trials money? Does this mean you're running Truvativ cranks too, perhaps with less offset/rake/whatever than many trials cranks?

Replacement bearings are available if you do decide to stick with the Ultimates. They're around £15 a set (4 bearings, 2 each side) and I had no issues replacing them, though I think Ali had some difficulties before.

[Ali C]

haha, yeah, couldn't find a single way for getting the bearings out and eventually destroyed the arms.

[Matt Vandart]

Dude I get this all the time, I just ignore it, in fact sometimes I use my leg pushing against one side of the vee to scrub off a bit of speed cos pulling the lever was too bitey.

This means I wear down one pad quicker than the other so I change them over now and again to balance it out bit of a pain in the arse but better than putting up with the shit that goes with maggies.

I use avid sd7 and rockman cnc blue pads.