Since combining short-pull (high leverage ratio) levers with v-brakes (high leverage) just increases the leverage ratio of the whole system, you can achieve more than adequate stopping power with this "wrong" combination. In my experience, it comes at the cost of brake pad clearance (your wheels have to be perfectly true, and the pads have to run very close to the rims) and lots of lever travel. If you've got big mitts and well-built wheels, you can pull it off. Small hands and iffy spoke tension, it can be problematic.
It is also true that some of those shimano levers have adjustable cable pull, so that might be part of it. I find that the difference between the canti/caliper & v-brake settings on those levers is not as much as the difference between a purpose-built canti/caliper lever and a purpose-built v-brake lever. On Wednesday, February 1, 2017 at 8:40:44 AM UTC-8, Patch T wrote: > > I got my parts-bin levers confused and ended up putting old Shimano 770 > short-pull mtn levers on a bike with new Motolites. And it worked pretty > darn ok. I'm not keeping the set-up, but my curiosity was ignited. > > There is about half-a-lever's worth of free pull until the cables engage > and the brake arms start to compress. At that point, once engaged, I never > found my levers touching my handlebars, even when braking super hard down > dirt trails yesterday (don't worry I test-rode these a bit before taking to > the mountains). I was never without stopping power, and was able to find > all the subtle sweet spots between. I felt very confident and rode hard. > > So I suppose my question is if the result would be the same with other > linear-pull brakes with short-pull levers? Or is this because of the > Motolite's excellent modulation? Or does it have more to do with the lever? > > One thing to consider, the wheels are spanking new and true and the pads > are real close. > > And again, I'm not necessarily trying to make this work-- just curious. > > Thanks > > Patch in LA > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
