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i am on the lookout for a robust cheap secondhand tourer.
something i am not to worried about leaving in a city.
seen a few good bargains, but most have vee's or canti's.
probably 20 years since i rode either IIRC. also seem to remember they were both pretty reliable once set up
when touring i travel light, meaning i take little. 2 x medium panniers. so ultimate stopping isn't a must.
anyone still using either for touring ?
Plenty of the retrobike lads and lasses still use them for everything! Stick to decent V's and there's no reason they won't be perfectly fine.
My (10+ yr old) tourer has v brakes, I put some new shimano arms and pads on, the brakes are amazing.
Vs with the correct pull ratio for drop bars are great!
Aye,decent V-brakes with quality pads and you'll be reet.🙂
Built up a flat bar town bike for one of my lads with Vs and Avid 7 levers.
I gave it a few runs on my old commute route before he picked it up and it was fine.
Good pads and in the dry they're as good as discs in the wet bit less so but not terrible
Don't tandems have them as a drag brake?
Work beautifully. But watch your rims obviously, i wore through one on a loaded tour in France.
My favourite bike is my 90s tourer, so many happy memories. I ve actually lent it to 2 people now for a few years each, now back in my possession. V brakes, 3x9, brooks saddle, love it. Probably worth 250 tops.
The Avid SD7s on my Roberts Roughstuff are great, more than enough for touring. I tried Magura HS33s for quite a while but they were a real pain to adjust and I'm not convinced they were any better.
My dad's still riding on Vs as is my son on his hack/school bike. People used to ride MTBs on Vs and cantis and when I recall the terrifying side pull and centre pull brakes fitted to the hand me down bikes of my youth I reckon you'll be fine.
Yep. V brake on touring bike. Work fine. Would prefer discs, but not an iusse.
Also have cantilever on cross bike. Which I toured on. But they don't feel as good. But would still be happy to use them
Both my tourers on V brakes and Tektro RL520V levers. As well as having the correct pull they have a button to release a bit of cable when taking a wheel out.
https://road.cc/content/review/12339-tektro-rl520-v-brake-compatible-drop-levers
There is no cable adjustment on the levers so fine cable adjustment sorted by these.
https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/brakes/diacompe-flexie-cable-adjuster-gold/
I bought some TRP mini-Vs and levers for my 'cross bike which I use almost daily around town.
Far better than the cantis which I had before, wish I'd discovered them sooner.
They also have a button to slacken the cable like the tektros. It's all very well designed and nicely made, super impressed with TRP.
I bought a brand new bike 4 months ago with V's on it and still had V's on my CX bike.
I have changed to mini Vs (because they look better!) and they work very well and have used them all through winter so far. Still annoying when riding through mud, wet grit etc,. as get some horrible noises when first braking nut then it's not like disc brakes don't produce horrible noises at times.
I would take V's over Cantis as have also used Cantis over the last year and they do not work as well but they do have more pad clearance which can be a bonus (see mud and grit comment above)
I use Vs with my 20+kg ebike with trailer and 2 kids in the back. It's absolutely fine so I can't see any issues for touring.
Still riding mini-vs on the gravel bike, cantilevers on the CX bike.
Since I'm unlikely to race the CX bike much if at all any more I'd probably go mini-V also, cantilevers always seem to be a compromise between power/lever feel and squeal.
With mini-vs I'd go for the shortest arm I could, I tried some 90mm arms and they were super powerful but super mushy and actually quite difficult to set up well. Barely any rim clearance either. The 84mm arms on my CX 8.4s give more clearance and less mushy lever.
I use a set of cheap Clarks V's on my tourer and I don't travel light 😀, never had a problem with them and don't think I'd change to discs even if the bike would accept them, much easier to make repairs on when far from my box of tools. I did ditch the stock pads though as they were hard and plasticky, after market pads can make all the difference.
I got this for £200 of eBay for light touring and nipping to the shop. It’s got cantis on which I had been planning on replacing with mini v’s - however they work well enough that I haven’t bothered yet. I’m a big lad at 15 st too. Definitely not as good as the cx 8.4s on my Allday, but strong enough for light touring in the dry I reckon.