Thinking of going flat bar on my commuter - what v brakes do y'all recommend?

[Honey]

haven't ridden a v brake in decades, but I'm starting to think it makes sense for my commuter (doesn't have discs, I ride more upright and am a lot slower than I used to be).

any other thoughts on the conversion welcome.

Thanks!


Follow up question - can I use my 10 spd crank / chainring / freehub and put some nx on it to make it 12 speed? are there any issues or gotchas with this?

[EB]

What kind of frame do you have? Or are you picking up a new (to you) frame?

[xnetter]

V-brakes are awesome for flat bar bikes. Almost too powerful sometimes.

I have a set of the basic Avid arms paired with the Avid SD levers and Kool Stop salmon cartridge pads on one bike. Perfect braking with no fuss.

KJ

[josephr]

I have a Surly cross-check built as a flat-bar path/gravel bike. Its a lot of fun! v-brakes work just great...just regular ole tektro. doesn't have to be fancy!

[Honey]

Originally Posted by EB

What kind of frame do you have? Or are you picking up a new (to you) frame?

converting an old cx bike (130 rear spacing, pretty standard cx geo)

[Honey]

Originally Posted by xnetter

V-brakes are awesome for flat bar bikes. Almost too powerful sometimes.

I have a set of the basic Avid arms paired with the Avid SD levers and Kool Stop salmon cartridge pads on one bike. Perfect braking with no fuss.

KJ

thanks!

[Honey]

Originally Posted by josephr

I have a Surly cross-check built as a flat-bar path/gravel bike. Its a lot of fun! v-brakes work just great...just regular ole tektro. doesn't have to be fancy!

thanks!

[robin3mj]

Paul Mini Motos if you’re ok with the pricing, Tektro v brakes if you prefer to spend less.

[EB]

Originally Posted by Honey

converting an old cx bike (130 rear spacing, pretty standard cx geo)

Nice, v-brakes should work fine - I recommend Shimano Deore. Your choice of bars and stem is more important than which brakes you get, and which ones will work best depends on how upright you want to be, where you want your hands, and how much steerer you have above the headset (assuming this is a threadless fork and headset).

I like Jones H-bars, but they work best if you can get them positioned at or slightly above the saddle with a 70 or 80mm stem. Other kinds of bars work better if the bars have to be lower or the stem longer. You have to experiment a bit to find what works.

[EB]

Originally Posted by robin3mj

Paul Mini Motos if you’re ok with the pricing, Tektro v brakes if you prefer to spend less.

I think mini-motos are for short pull levers (ie road levers). They don’t work well with long-pull levers.

[robin3mj]

Originally Posted by EB

I think mini-motos are for short pull levers (ie road levers). They don’t work well with long-pull levers.

Duh, forgot that.

[robt57]

Just have some longer stems on hand. You will prob need at least +2CM. And if you choose really swept back bars more. Of course if you are hiking up the bars that will shorten required reach a bit.

Another choice might be going with some Condor 2 Soma bars, just a thought. The silver ones are on sale for $35.00 currently, black +10. I have found these the most comfortable goofy looking bars ever. These with bar cons or a 1x with one bar con makes for a nice city or commuter IMO.

Brakes? Assume canti being you asked about V brakes. Cheap route Tektro, best Pauls. But as said Pauls will be more lever pull-centric. I like 8-8'5 CM 'V' brakes over the longer ones personally.

[lorenbike]

Originally Posted by robin3mj

Paul Mini Motos if you’re ok with the pricing, Tektro v brakes if you prefer to spend less.

Flat bar commuters (and flat bar gravel) bikes are the best bikes.

Mini motos are nice especially with drop bar levers, but you can't beat price, simplicity, and stopping power of regular Shimano deore v brakes. My favorite brakes of all time (including discs) for how easy they are to set up and plenty of stopping power. I've paired deore v brakes with cheapish Shimano levers and this combo beats any Paul or trp mini v combo with brifters. I compared mini motos to regular vs with long pull avid levers and didn't notice a difference in stopping power. Upgrade to some Kool stop pads and who wants to deal with discs again?

If you have the hg freehub body you should be fine running 11spd MTB cassettes. Not sure though if it's the road specific 10spd Shimano hub.

[CMiller]

I’ve had good luck with nearly every single v brake I’ve used, as long as pads were good. I recommend deore too. Currently running deore with AVID SD7 levers.

[reuben]

Originally Posted by EB

I think mini-motos are for short pull levers (ie road levers). They don’t work well with long-pull levers.

I use Shimano BL-R780 levers on one of my bikes. They have a little switch in the lever that changes it to short or long pull. Being flat bar levers, they might be a viable option.

https://bike.shimano.com/en-US/produ...0/BL-R780.html