I have some Avid BB7 road calipers which have hardly been used. I would like to get some use out of them and save a few quid on a bike build. I would like to fit them to a 29er MTB build. I rate these brakes a lot and have used quite a few sets of the MTB version on other bikes I have had. I have the road version calipers which I might take from my lille used CX bike and stick some good old cantis on that. This will keep the cost down on the 29er build.

I know the MTB calipers just wont work on the drop bar levers and intergrated brake gear levers on road bikes etc. But will it work the other way round? ie the road BB7 calipers on say standard Avid SD7 or similar MTB V brake levers. Or will I have to source some old canti style brake levers Dia Compes etc etc, to make it work good.

read somewhere the difference is the length of the arm on the caliper. if you have avid SD7s with the modulation adjuster you should be able to fine tune the pull.

It should be OK with normal levers. You’ll just learn to modulate the power over a shorter range.

But, as road BB7s are quite sought after, I’d be tempted to sell them and buy some mtb bb7s cheaper.