Front brake advice for a bike build

[Richard86]

Hello, another returner here.

I'm 33, and last rode trials when I was about 18. It was a mix of bikes back then, but mostly mod. I'm confused about brakes, so apologies if my question below is long winded and vague, I'm just trying to get up to date here. First a little background.

I want to build a cheap "soft" 26" trials bike to have a play with, mostly from old parts that I have lying around before I start upgrading bits. By soft, I want to have a seat and gears so I can keep up with the kids on a bike ride. Unfortunately the frame I have (Zona Zenith 26") doesn't have a seat post, so I'm going to weld up a removable attachment of some sorts. I don't want or have space for multiple bikes. I already have too much stuff.  

One thing I want to get right straight away however, are the brakes. No point trying to do any trials if that's not right. I had enough of that as a kid.

I was always a fan of V-brakes. Regardless which is "best", I just like the simplicity, their price and how well they work when set up right. For the rear I will be getting a magura because the frame I have bought has the four hole magura mount so it just makes sense to keep life simple here.

For the front, I was hoping to keep it simple with a v-brake. This is where I get confused.

When I was a teenager it was a choice of Avid, XT, XTR etc, but all those seem to have gone away now.

Looking at Shimano selections, the highest spec V-brake I can find is a deore  closely followed by a very cheap Alivio. What's Alivio anyway? Is that new? Since this is all that's on offer now (other brands all seem to be a similar price range of about £25), can I assume they are very good and benefit from years of development, or have manufacturers given up on v-brakes and just want you to fork out on much more expensive alternatives? I was hoping to get an XTR parallel push type brake (but on the cheap as it's old tech now), I really like the even wear and how easy they are to set up correctly, but nobody seems to make anything like that any more.

Looking at TartyBikes the only v-brake they sell is the Alivio.

So, do I:

1. If I'm happy with v-brakes, wack a cheapo v-brake on the front like the Alivio, or

2. Accept that things have moved on, do what others are doing and spend a fair bit more money and get a half decent hydraulic disc on the front?

 

I really want to go down option 1 as it means using forks and a wheel I already have, but I hate the constant adjustment from pad wear or wheel warpage when you don't have parallel push, and I don't want to have a front brake that is cheaply made because manufacturers don't believe in the technology anymore.

 

I guess my question is, what are people doing up front these days and what should I do?

 

 

[AdamR28]

A cheapo V works just fine. Setup, cable and pads more important than the arms themselves.

[La Bourde]

Maybe you can get some used ones. This is not the kind of stuff that can get damaged (be careful with arms with parallelograms like XT/XTR though, they may have play) and it is easy to find. I found some Avid Speed Dial 7 levers on ebay recently for a decent price. I have some deore arms on one bike and it works fine.

Shimano still produces Deore, LX (for trekking though) and XT arms.

As Adam wrote, pads and cables are more important. I recommend not to buy some arms with parallelograms, they required too much maintenance and they are not stiff.

I tried also fine high polished cable that should reduce friction on my old race BMX (Jagwire ultra slick). I noticed a difference first, but I can't say it was much better overtime. The cable was really expensive (10x more than a cheap one), so I am not sure it was worth it.

 

 

[Richard86]

Thanks for all the advice.

Cheapo V-brake it is then.

I've order an Avid SD7 as I know I like the feel, and I'm just using an old Shimano v-brake I had lying around for the time being to see how I get on.

Just need my cranks to arrive so I can take it for a ride. C'mon Postman!!