That was exactly my motivation as well. It would be a long, long time before I’d be willing to shell out for maggie’s (particularly new ones) just to see if I like brakes. I know used maggies can be reasonably affordable, but this still seems much less committed.
Photo’s to go with the first post
A while back the Gallery was dropped from this forum, and all of the photo’s on this thread (and many others) were lost. Here are the photo’s that were with the original post, and a few others at this link.
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Bumpity bump bump. Great info for those who can’t justify spending $200 for maggies.
By the way how are your guys’s v brakes holding up if you still use them?
I’ve got about 6 months use on mine, and they work great. I used some XTR v-brakes left over from converting a MTB to disc; the nice thing about them is that the hardware they come with to make the parallel push mechanism work means you don’t have to fabricate any mounting plates for the uni.
Here’s a photo - you can see the brake booster I added to lock both ends of the mounting bolts in place. The Magura mount didn’t seem sturdy enough to support the bolt on its own, from the one end.
(The careful viewer will also spot my puppy’s paw wandering into view, as he comes to see what is up!)
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Went to a friends house tonight. He hooked me up with some center-pulls:D:D:D We’ll see how it goes trying to put them on. I think the hardest part is gonna be mounting where the two wires meet. Have to have that little mount somewhere.
I hade made ones very similar to jtrops’ ones, using tape instead of the metal tube inserts. After a few months, it started degrading, and had to be re-setup frequently. I ordered the 4-bolt to v-brake adaptors from Tartybike, and it’s been perfect for over a year now.
V-Briake Adaptors
This is a post of mine from a few years ago.
I was the one who originally posted the Mission 4 bolt adaptors. I am happy to see that UDC uk started supplying them. I bought them way before UDC uk was selling them. After using them for about a year and a half now I have the folowing to say about them.
They are big and clumsy and torke is increased. I would not use them on a MUni. I have kept them on my KH29 where I do gentle feathering of the breaks on downhill sections of road. They are perfect here. Also I very rarely fall on the KH29 when doing cross country and road riding.
In MUni they get hit a lot and I have had the post break in the holes. It is then a bitch trying to get it out! I would use Maguras for hard MUni. There is also a 2 bolt adaptor made by Woodman that sells for $50 that would probably be better. However if yuo are going to spend so much money you might as well just get the Magura!
In summation: For cross country or road riding v-brakes with adaptors are fine. For Muni you should stick to the Maggies.
26" wheel in 29" frame
This works just fine, although maybe not the prettiest thing in the world. Same setup as I used in my prior post, but I added an extension to move the location of the v-brake mount. I added a spacer so the brake would clear the little mounting screws.
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that is a really clean set up.
Is your rim cracked?
i just took of v-brakes from an old bike 
What is the function of the aluminium angle…? is it so that there can be a hole for the little metal protrusion to keep the spring under tension while locked against the side of the frame…or… 
Does this sound like a correct materials list I’ll need?
2x #10-32-1 1/2" screw
2x aluminium angle
2x 1" aluminium tube ~7mm o.d., fit around #10 screw; I have a pen barrel that fits just inside the brake’s hole…but the I.D. is a little big… maybe this’ll work?
4x #10 washers
It looks like you’re on the right track, but the bolts are 4mm not 10-32. You may want to double check that, but I’m pretty sure it’s right.
The angle is as you said to hold the return spring for the brake. The reason I used angle was to limit the movement once it was all assembled. If I make another set I plan on using fender washers for this purpose, and bending them into an angle. I think it will make a nicer finish, and work just as well. Plus I will get out of drilling at least two holes!
hm…i measure the frame’s hole…and its under 4mm, which sounds right
but i’m able to thread my ~4.9mm bolt into it… I’ll just bring my frame into the hardware store to make sure it fits
Thanks!
I like the idea of fender washer…but i think it might be easier for me to drill holes in Al then iron/steel…i’ll buy two washers to try.
How do i determine where to drill the small hole…? position where the brakes would be further away, drill hole, place brake onto it and pull the brake closer to rim which tensions then spring and then tighten bolt?
If I rember correctly the bolts are M5 x 4mm. I bought 5mm and cut to the exact length. The angles will keep tension on the brake so it stays off the rim. I experimented here and drilled two different holes. If you use the pictues from this post it shows what you need.
M5 sounds right. For the little holes I put one perpendicular to the fork blade, and another maybe 20 degrees above that. I think I added the higher holes later due to low spring tension.
The length I bought was 45mm however I had to cut them to 40mm.
at the store:
M5 bolts: barely squeeze into one of the holes, cudnt thread into other hole.
#10-32, thread in, but a bit of room…
on the way home, i realized…it’s probably the paint on the frame that prevented me from threading the metric bolts in. I should have put a bit more muscle into it
either way, they only had 30mm long metric bolts of that size…so I would need to go elsewhere either way.
Should I try using the 10-32 bolt, or am I asking for the threads on the frame to be stripped…(maybe add some loctite and not make it too tight? or is there actually a lot of forces and strength needed to hold the brakes on.)
I have had to chase the threads on all of my uni frames to clean the paint out. Be careful if you are just planning on ramming a bolt in. A tap to do it right is cheap and easy to get. I would use the right bolts. There is too much of a chance that they will pull the threads out if they aren’t a tight fit. I always use blue loctite on brake bolts. Don’t use much, and make sure it doesn’t get onto the post. OEM bolts that come with the brakes already have thread locker on them, so it seems like a good place to use it.