Hi,

I've got a cyclocross bike and it has brake levers like a road bike, but they're v-brakes. I've worn my pads down or my cables have stretched and now the levers get to the bar before doing anything. On ordinary v-brakes you could unscrew the thing at the lever to sort this out and put more tension in the cable. Is there a similar thing for these? The levers are Shimano.

Cheers

Chris

Wrong levers for those brakes I'm afraid, they'll never work properly.

Road levers will pull caliper brakes, cantilever brakes, or mini-v brakes.

Having said that, surely you can add more tension by pulling more cable through at the brake? But don't expect great performance.

You can get inline cable adjusters.

Have you got one of these fitted? It changes the amount of cable pulled so you can run road STI levers with v brakes.

TRAVEL AGENT.

The Problem Solvers Travel Agents allow the use of any non-linear pull lever, STI or Ergo lever with any linear pull brake.

Product uses:
Designed at the time when the industry was shifting from cantilever to linear pull brakes, our Travel Agents allowed customers to keep using their expensive integrated cantilever brake shift levers while upgrading to new linear pull mountain brakes.
Today, the Travel Agent still solves problems as it allows the rider to use road drop bars and road brake/shift levers and the stronger linear pull brakes.

The primary segments that use this application are cyclocross and road tandems.

Technical details:
Allows non-linear pull, STI or Ergo levers to be used with linear pull brakes
Can increase cable travel or can be used as a low friction roller to replace the noodle on linear pull brakes
Machined and anodized 6061-T6 aluminium

An option also available with cable adjusting barrel

Replaces V-brake spaghetti pipe with a low-friction bearing operated pulley.
Dual cable routing system provides optional leverage enhancer, which ALSO allows V-brakes to be operated effectively with conventional pull levers (e.g. Sti or Ergo etc.) if so desired.

Nah, I don't appear to have these fitted. I was hoping to avoid pulling them through at the calliper as this faff.

I think they are mini v brakes. It's a Genesis Day One cross. I'll have a look at some form of Travel Agent, seems to be what it needs, was just hoping there was some riddle that came with it I needed to solve.

Brakes worked brilliantly on the first ride! I was just using one finger. Then it got muddy.

loosen the pinch bolt, pull cable through, tighten. easy ) in-line adjusters are another option.

edit – no need for a travel agent, it won't work as the mini-v's specced are the right size to work with the levers.

I was hoping to avoid the pinch bolt option as this would be needed to be done when I change the pads and stuff. Surely too much pinching isn't good?