this should be a pretty open and shut case, I’m fed up with my bike brakes falling apart, and being useless when they do work. They’re currently the stock cantilevers, I want to swap to V-brakes, either shimano alivio or deroe, will this work, and is it worth springing the extra few quid for the deore? Can i reuse my cables, and will these go on my cantilever studs?
It’s been so long since I’ve used a cantilever brake, I’m not sure if their studs have the same requirements as for a v-brake–I think they’ll probably work.
You might be able to reuse the cables, assuming you can carefully remove and rethread them through all the holes. However, unless you already replaced them recently, I would replace them too. Old brake cables are no fun, and they’re pretty inexpensive as bike parts go.
As far as which model, the differences are in appearance and maybe weight, but braking performance should be basically the same (assuming the included brake pads are the same).
You’ll also need new brake levers unless you’re lucky and have a pair that is both cantilever and V-brake compatible. Cantilever brake levers and V-brake brake levers pull different amounts of cable. You can’t use V-brakes with a cantilever brake lever or cantilevers with a V-brake brake lever. So make sure you get the full kit (brakes + levers).
You’ll likely also need new brake cable housing since the way the cantilevers and V-brakes mount differently and need a different routing and length of housing.
thanks for the help guys, brakes are now installed with minimum hassle and are extremley vicious. Set up is so much easier than cantilvers that it’s unbelievable. I’m going to be sliding the tail all over town.
Like John mentioned, your old levers may well pull too little cable for V-brakes (but not as bad as levers meant for caliper brakes). This will make the brakes far too strong and grabby, as well as having to be kept adjusted really close to the rim to stop the levers bottoming out against the bars.
But if the cantis you had were the modern trendy “low profile” type (rather than older style cantis that stick straight out perpendicular to the frame) they were pretty useless anyway, so the Vs will be much more powerful.
If they’re too grabby for you, either get some harder blocks or set them up with a bit more toe-in. But they usually mellow a bit after some use anyway.
Rob
I got a complete set of arms and levers off ebay for the princely sum of £21 so no problems. Considering the simplicity and power of these things makes me wonder why cantis or sidepull were ever used.