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

[KrispyK]

I have the Shimano Deore BR-T610 with Kool stop Salmon pads. The 610 come with replaceable pad holders. I paired them with Yokozuma compressionless housing and Tiagra brake levers. It stops almost too well. Love it

[AJosiahK]

Motolites set up with TRP ML930 levers work just fine for the CX rig Ive got set up flat bar. Not the same pull ratio but its not that noticable

[lorenbike]

Originally Posted by reuben

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

I have these too and they work great -- highly recommend especially for the price!

[Mr.Appa]

Originally Posted by KrispyK

I have the Shimano Deore BR-T610 with Kool stop Salmon pads. The 610 come with replaceable pad holders. I paired them with Yokozuma compressionless housing and Tiagra brake levers. It stops almost too well. Love it

Second these. They are bomber! Best V-brakes for the money that you can still buy as new.

https://www.rivbike.com/products/no-...kes-15145-disc

[tellyho]

Honestly, most any V-brake above the ****ty level works about the same. You *can* spend money on them, but $20 Tektros are going to work exactly as well as $100 whatever.

You'll need a long-pull lever, obvs, unless you go mini. For a flat bar, I see no reason to do that, though.

[benb]

I have some really inexpensive Shimano ones, mine didn't come with the pad holders.. annoying, I think they were supposed to.

I have them matched with some Avid levers, also really inexpensive.

The brakes work great. WAY better than any mini-V or Cantilever brake setup I ran on the bike with road integrated levers. The issue as someone else mentioned is getting the stem set up right.

I did this on my All City Space Horse. That is an extremely stable bike, and yet it's really NOT happy with the flat bar. I've had to monkey around with the stem length it a lot. It was surprising to me as it's a popular bike to run with a flat bar. I am between sizes and have the larger of the two, it's possible the smaller size would be better for me with the flat bar.

Some of it is that I just wear a backpack (laptop) when I ride to work. The combination of the more upright position plus the backpack weight & wider bar really mess with low speed stability. Realistically I should get a narrower city style bar I think.

If I finally manage to break that bike I'll probably by one built for that purpose to just save the effort and know I'll get something setup right. That kind of bike is cheap anyway.

[tellyho]

Further unsolicited flat bar advice - on my hardtail that I consider mostly a gravel bike and spends time on roads, I use a set of bar ends mounted inboard of the grips and levers for an aero position. I like it a lot for grinding into the wind, and I would struggle with solely flat bars on my commute (still dedicated drop bar user there).

[p nut]

Any v brake will work. I used Avid SD7 on my old commuter. Worked great. Just get some good some kool stop pads.

[thermalattorney]

Originally Posted by Honey

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?

+1 on flat bar commuters. I'm building one up a new right now as well.

No gotchas. You can definitely use your existing 10sp chainring and SRAM's PG-1230 cassette to go Eagle on your HG freehub. Your chainline will likely be off spec but it's unlikely to cause major issues.

[pdmtong]

get brakes and levers that are of "equal" quality and don't forget the pads that are best for your conditions.

I used TRP mini-V but dont see these on their website any longer

[dmitrik4]

As mentioned, the Shimano ones work fine. I have a set of TRP CX9s on my flat bar hybrid and they’re nicer than the Shimanos—a LOT easier to keep well-adjusted.