Having some hassle with the rear V-brake on the cross bike – it’s one of those cheap tektro brakes. When I pull the brake and release, the cable is not returning all the way (you can see it not being in tension along the top tube), causing one pad to rub.
Any tips on how to fix this?

If the tip is to throw the tektro in the bin and get something decent, any suggestions on what’s a good V-brake these days?

There are screws on the arms screw them in that might help. Also to run v brakes (properly) on a cx bike you need to run either mini v’s or use a ratio gainer, as road levers pull less cable than MTB ones. Hope that helps

Thanks 1111, the brakes came with the bike (tricross) new so I’d hope they’d be compatible.

You know when you take the brake caliper completely off the bike, there is a choice of 3 holes in the boss to fit the end of the tensioning spring in? Is this so you can increase the tension for when the spring gets older? I was thinking maybe I just need to change the position of the spring to make the caliper spring back more.

I’d also recommend taking the outer cables off and cleaning them out with GT8 or similar. Check the inner cable for wear also. Finally have a look at the brake block and ensure there are no ‘ridges’ which may be ‘hooking up’ on the braking surface of the rim.

Garry_lager – yes that is what those holes are for.

Tektro V brakes are pretty decent and have quite a lot of power when they are set up properly.

If you cant get them sorted give me a shout and i’ll have a look and see whats up with them.

As above, then you use the screws on the outside to center them. And can un hook and try bending the long wire to increase the tension a little too.

Bin ’em. Tektro V’s are utter s**te. Replace them with Deore or Avid SD7 for a noticeable improvement.