CX9 or 8.4 with 7700?

[notsew]

My google searching is failing me. I have a TRP CX9 brakeset. I've been trying to make it work with my 7700 levers. They don't seem to be playing well together. Is this user error, or do I need 8.4s?

[spartanKid]

My google searching is failing me. I have a TRP CX9 brakeset. I've been trying to make it work with my 7700 levers. They don't seem to be playing well together. Is this user error, or do I need 8.4s?

IME the pre-hidden cabling shimano levers have a higher mechanical advantage and thus pull LESS cable, so they do better with shorter arm mini-vs. In general, the shorter the arms, the more rim clearance.

If you can get some that are even shorter than 84mm, do it. I personally like the 926Als from Tektro, which are 80 mm arms.

When I have seen older shimano levers like 7700 with mini-vs, you tend to get very little pad-rim clearance.

[zzy]

I agree with spartankid - you'll want about the shortest arms you can find for 9sp STIs. Modern 'superSLR' Shimano STIs have more pull and work well with longer arms.

[notsew]

Thanks. I wanted to make sure before I gave up. Back to cantis for me!

[benb]

Ah.. so I have CX9s and Tiagra 4600 levers.. would I be better off to try some MTB levers with even longer arms? I wouldn't say I have any problems with pad clearance but no matter what I do they still require a lot more hand force than normal road caliper brakes. Since there are lots of super cheap MTB options with the 100mm arms, etc.. are those worth a try? I had test rode a bike with 6800 shifters+calipers recently and it had a ton more braking power + modulation + lower effort than my setup.

My setup is basically OK if everything is freshly cleaned and perfectly adjusted but just doesn't have enough power to compensate for anything as soon as the bike gets a little dirty or out of tune.

It is so hard to figure out what is Super SLR and what is not, it appears 4600 is, 7700 is obviously not since it is 9-speed and AFAIK there were no Super SLR setups until 10 speed.