Viewing 24 posts - 1 through 24 (of 24 total)
  • Mini Vees – advantage over cantis/any downsides?
  • pinetree
    Free Member

    As above, really. Finding the canti brakes on my cross bike a bit crap and was thinking about swapping out for some Mini Vees. As far as I can see it should offer more responsive braking and cant see any obvious downsides. Anybody got any experiences which differ? Or is there any reason not to do it?

    simondbarnes
    Full Member

    Downsides for me were having to run them really close to the rims. This isn’t great for mud clearance and can be a bit of a pain for removing wheels.

    harvey
    Free Member

    i have used them for years. they are a good rim brake. more powerful than cantis and much easier to set up

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    kiwijohn
    Full Member

    Regret it you will not.

    epicyclo
    Full Member

    Mini-Vs are probably the most powerful cable rim brake for road and gravel and dead simple to maintain.

    Northwind
    Full Member

    For me, advantages were they weren’t shite- I put dirt cheap tektros on with standard pads and they worked better than any cantis I’ve ever tried. Not to mention less fannying about trying to get the bastards to work. Cantis are shit, everyone knows it, the only place they have any more is in cyclocross where the entire point is that the bikes are shit.

    Downsides- a bit less mud clearance. Not an issue for normal person riding ime but could be an issue if you’re a glutton for punishment and/or racer where you might well be riding through the most joyless miserable shite imaginable at which point it’s an issue, although it can’t possibly spoil your day because it’s already as bad as days get.

    Removing wheels was slower as I had to slacken it off using the barrel adjuster. Oh and when I fitted mudguards to the bike, the straddle wire fouled the guards and I ended up having to cut a notch.

    Oh and they do wear your rims faster, because they actually generate friction unlike most cantis. if that bothers you, you can oil them

    Poopscoop
    Full Member

    ^^ Good post NW, give me a good laugh too, in a good way! 🙂

    TheBrick
    Free Member

    I have cants on the rear my old MTB now touring bike, crap willco pads and never had a issue easily locking up the rear. A bit more fiddling to setup compared to v breaks but that is it. Had cants on a cross bike too with no issues. I just don’t get how people can’t set them up!

    13thfloormonk
    Full Member

    I’ve got them on my commuter, a cheap Genetics set on the back and a very slightly longer Tektro RX6 on the front (mudguard clearance, no cutting notches for me!).

    I never had any issues with power on my cantilevers, but could never get them to run quietly. Eventually got bored fiddling and moved to mini-vs, no more squeeling! 8)

    Also fitted posh pads (Swisstop Blue) and toed the front pads in. Finally my brake levers have an old school wee feature that lets you release the brakes slightly to remove the wheel, but I just run them in this position all the time to increase clearance and stop the pads rubbing.

    Right now I’d take a posh set of mini-vs over a set of discs any day, but then I’m weird like that…

    beanum
    Full Member

    For even more power, you can fit a Travel Agent. I had one on the front with a mini-V and it worked well…

    SJS cycles

    nedrapier
    Full Member

    I bought mini Vs for my commuter but couldn’t get them to fit – old bike narrow bosses, wide rims. Got CX50s instead, which I’m very happy with.

    Got the unused mini Vs to sell for not much if you want to try

    daern
    Free Member

    Oh and they do wear your rims faster, because they actually generate friction unlike most cantis. if that bothers you, you can oil them

    Properly laughed at this. Will annoy my CX friends with it 🙂

    pinetree
    Free Member

    Not a CX fan then, Northwind?

    andytherocketeer
    Full Member

    I have cants on the rear my old MTB now touring bike, crap willco pads and never had a issue easily locking up the rear.

    Front is usually the one with issues with cantis. 20-30cm between the outer cable end stop and the canti arms, and lots of vibrations.

    No issues with my Tektro Mini V’s, with the exception that you need to wriggle the tyre through the pads when changing wheel because V-brake pads are so long they extend behind the fork legs and seat stays, and don’t open quite far enough for the wheel to drop out.

    Oh and I need to remember that they don’t have the stopping power of 180 discs.

    legend
    Free Member

    pinetree – Member
    Not a CX fan then, Northwind?

    I’m just assuming he was slow

    Big-Dave
    Free Member

    For even more power, you can fit a Travel Agent. I had one on the front with a mini-V and it worked well…

    SJS cycles

    I run Travel Agents on my Uncle John with full size V brakes and they work well.

    TiRed
    Full Member

    Miles better. I had some lovely TRP carbon cantis, but the long exposed cable on the front made fork judder dangerous. So I switched to some very cheap mini v’s and they’ve been fine. Lever pull is higher, but I can live with it. The front wheel is a bit off true, so that adds to the issue, but power and modulation on alloy rims is great.

    The real kicker is that I’m running Gevenalle 1×10 brake/shifters, and had I known about the judder beforehand, I’d have bought their V brake option instead of their road pull shifters, and ordinary V brakes 🙁

    Northwind
    Full Member

    legend – Member

    I’m just assuming he was slow

    Course I was, I was the only person in the one race I did that had functioning brakes!

    epicyclo
    Full Member

    Northwind – Member
    Course I was, I was the only person in the one race I did that had functioning brakes!

    About 10 years ago I did the first Bealach na Bah sportive on my singlespeed Pompino which had mini-Vs.

    I may have been somewhat slow up the hill but I passed plenty on the way down because I could brake later and harder. Somewhat fatter tyres (40mm) allowed the full use of the brakes.

    devash
    Free Member

    Downsides for me were having to run them really close to the rims

    This was my experience when trying to get a set working on a Specialized Tricross that I used to own. Could never get the pull to my liking to went back to the cantis but with some Koolstop pads and this increased braking power enough for me to stick with them.

    flip456
    Free Member

    I’m definitely going to use some mini v’s on an upcoming rebuild. I’ve been looking at some bling TRP 8.4 over the budget tektros, is there any performance difference?

    damomcg
    Free Member

    I run a set of Tektro mini-Vs on my Jake the Snake. They are ace compared to the shit cantis it came with.
    The only down side is that I don’t think I could run tyres wider than 35mm with these (the stays will accept wider, perhaps 40mm). Tyre clearance is down to how wide you can open the pads to insert the wheel and also clearance for the straddle cable.

    Has anybody tried these?
    Shimano Road Vs
    They have a slightly longer arm than the Tektro mini-Vs

    13thfloormonk
    Full Member

    Those Shimanos have 90mm arms, 5mm longer than normal mini-vs, and same as the Tektro RX6s.

    I used the Tektros to clear a 40mm tyre with guard. I’m using shorter pads, i.e. not MTB V-Brake length, which allows the arms to open fully.

    Power is awesome, probably down to the Swisstop pads.

    shermer75
    Free Member

    Northwind’s post is genuinely funny here!! 🙂

Viewing 24 posts - 1 through 24 (of 24 total)

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