Just to say that, contrary to the entire internet, for some reason my BB5 brakes work very well with 105 5800 levers. That’s all.

Are they BB5 road?

No I don’t think so. They are £11 Avid BB5 copies off Amazon, sent from China. They are identical to my BB5s running normal levers on my commuter

They must be the road variant, either that or you’re happy with a spongy, nasty feeling brake.
The MTB BB’s don’t work with road levers, not properly anyway.

Yes mtb calipers will work, but due to less movement for the same pull the pads have to be set real close to the disc. A bit too grabby if anything, and yes I’ve done back to back comparison with road calipers.

Yes mine are set up with no slack and very close to the rotors but they are powerful enough

New shimano levers have a similar pull ratio to MTB v brakes so no need for road specific callipers anymore

i found that mtg callipers work with road levers fine. you need to adjust for pad wear much more often.

never tried the other way round.

I did this once.

Got fed up with adjusting pads every couple of days on my commute.

They go from working great to pulling to the bars veeeery quickly….bordering on dangerous frankly.

I bought road calipers in the end.