Having some trouble setting up V brakes

[Llewellyn]

I'm trying to set up the V brakes on my wife's bike and trying to get a combination of good feel with the levers when braking, pads close enough to the rims so that she doesn't squeeze the lever right to the bar before they make contact with the rim and being able to disengage them to remove the front wheel when necessary.

But it seems that if I get nice feel at the levers and good contact with the rims then I can't release the cable when I squeeze the two brake arms together. If I set them up so that they release easily, then the pads are too far from the rims and even using a death-grip on the levers won't get them to engage and stop the bike.

Should it be possible to set these up so that I can just squeeze the arms together and release the cable to remove the wheel or is there another step in the process that I'm missing? Do I need to unscrew the knurled ring up near the lever before I try to release the cable?

Hopefully, my description is clear enough to adequately explain the problem I'm having. Thanks

 

[dsut4392]

I'm trying to set up the V brakes on my wife's bike and trying to get a combination of good feel with the levers when braking, pads close enough to the rims so that she doesn't squeeze the lever right to the bar before they make contact with the rim and being able to disengage them to remove the front wheel when necessary.

But it seems that if I get nice feel at the levers and good contact with the rims then I can't release the cable when I squeeze the two brake arms together. If I set them up so that they release easily, then the pads are too far from the rims and even using a death-grip on the levers won't get them to engage and stop the bike.

Should it be possible to set these up so that I can just squeeze the arms together and release the cable to remove the wheel or is there another step in the process that I'm missing? Do I need to unscrew the knurled ring up near the lever before I try to release the cable?

Hopefully, my description is clear enough to adequately explain the problem I'm having. Thanks

Does your wife have small hands?

By "knurled ring", do you mean the cable barrel adjuster, or the lever reach adjuster? If you have the reach adjustment dialed in to bring the lever closer to the bar, this is the culprit - although it makes the lever easier to reach, it is reducing the total amount of cable travel available. At the extreme you have to choose between setting it up to be able to fully engage the brake, or fully release the brake as you have found. Solution to this is to use less reach adjustment, sacrificing some comfort in return for better function.

A contributing factor could be mounting the pads low down on the v-brake arms, angled up towards the rim. If so, mounting higher up the so the pad is more perpendicular to the rim could help. Set up this way, the brake shoe moves further for each amount of cable pulled, allowing you to set up the brakes with more clearance from the rim while still being able to engage them fully. Will also correspondingly reduce power (leverage) at the brake lever.

Better still, get her some hydraulic disc brakes

 

[Bustedknuckle]

I'm trying to set up the V brakes on my wife's bike and trying to get a combination of good feel with the levers when braking, pads close enough to the rims so that she doesn't squeeze the lever right to the bar before they make contact with the rim and being able to disengage them to remove the front wheel when necessary.

But it seems that if I get nice feel at the levers and good contact with the rims then I can't release the cable when I squeeze the two brake arms together. If I set them up so that they release easily, then the pads are too far from the rims and even using a death-grip on the levers won't get them to engage and stop the bike.

Should it be possible to set these up so that I can just squeeze the arms together and release the cable to remove the wheel or is there another step in the process that I'm missing? Do I need to unscrew the knurled ring up near the lever before I try to release the cable?

Hopefully, my description is clear enough to adequately explain the problem I'm having. Thanks

Levers V Brake compatible?

 

[DirtyWorks]

....she doesn't squeeze the lever right to the bar before they make contact with the rim and being able to disengage them to remove the front wheel...

Double-check the bike has linear pull levers. It sounds like you don't have them. What is the model of brakes and levers?

In my experience, Avid SD's set up good, but it can still be tricky to get them set up as described. High end shimano set up well too. Low end stuff never works quite as promised.

The tip about closing the lever reach is a golden one for women.