V-brake / U-brake compatibility

Probably not. I have just tried this on my bike, and the results are horrendous. Stopping is near impossible, its just a gradual deceleration, and I'm not sure it would do that downhill!
 
U's are designed around the same levers as centre pull cantilevers.

Though if you had a very striaght wheel, you could set it up close to the rim and it'll work. But for the cost of a bargain basement lever it's not really worth it.
 
FluffyChicken":1ne9bod0 said:
U's are designed around the same levers as centre pull cantilevers.

Though if you had a very striaght wheel, you could set it up close to the rim and it'll work. But for the cost of a bargain basement lever it's not really worth it.

It would almost be the opposite of that as canti and U brake levers pull little cable, V pull loads due to their larger lever point, so the V lever will pull loads of cable quickly causing the U brake to jam on quickly with very little modulation. That added to the fact that U brakes are 'dead' feeling brakes at the best of times and it'll probably feel horrid!
 
pete_mcc":2hxevsje said:
FluffyChicken":2hxevsje said:
U's are designed around the same levers as centre pull cantilevers.

Though if you had a very straight wheel, you could set it up close to the rim and it'll work. But for the cost of a bargain basement lever it's not really worth it.

It would almost be the opposite of that as canti and U brake levers pull little cable, V pull loads due to their larger lever point, so the V lever will pull loads of cable quickly causing the U brake to jam on quickly with very little modulation. That added to the fact that U brakes are 'dead' feeling brakes at the best of times and it'll probably feel horrid!

Absolutely correct, in my defence it was 5:30 in the morning :lol: woken up by the little monster.
Your poor fingers would be doing all the work of breaking past the contact point rather than the brake lever. Build your finger muscles up though.
 
Harumph. I want to 'pimp' my 1990 Fire Mountain for race-use, I have loads of newer (mid-1990s) bits and wanted to fit my newly aquired XT v-brakes as part of the rebuild. The u-brake mounts are obviously incompatible with the v's, but maybe if I have a decent front brake I won't need to rely the rear so much......?

SP
 
What size head tube does it have? I prefer U brakes to cantis, I might be willing to do a fork swap from my '92 Karakoram which is happy to take Vs.
 
Ah, I have a set of Pace RC35 to go on the front which I can fit v-brakes to, but I'm a bit stumped on what to do with the rear. The head tube is 1", but thankfully the Pace forks (off my 1992 Prestige) are the same diametre.
 
Just a quick bump, has anybody else tried this? :?

I built up my 1992 Prestige at the weekend and (cue Little Britian voice) " I don't like it" so I was wondering about overhauling my second crappy 1990 Fire Mountain into something more desireable using the Prestige as a donor.

I have toyed with a canti brake lever for the rear u-brake and a v- on the front but that'll look cack! The other option is to purchase a rocker for the Pace forks and use cantis on that. BUT as I've just shelled out for XT v-brakes that kind of defeats the object.

SP
 
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