Mountain Bike Brake system

[Johan Olivier]

Good day People,

 

One question that always comes to mind when you want to buy a MTB is the following.  Which Brake system for which groupset selection.  This mst be one of the toughtes choices to make.

 

Lets say for instance you have got R3000.00 to R4000.00 to spend on a MTB.  There is brands that give you a Great 9Spd bike with V-brakes and then there are brands that give you a 8speed bike with Mechanical Disc Brakes.  For me, I'll go for the 9spd bike that has v-brakes.  I get the better Groupset with the option, I can upgrade later to disc brakes if I want.  It will even make it cheaper for me to upgrade to Hydraulic, rather than Mechanical.

 

Then there are brands that are bringing Mechanical disc brakes down to lower price points.  Does it really matter having Mechanical Disc above V-Brake.  Both are cable operated and mechanical is heavier that V-brake.

 

As you can see, I'm confused with this point.  I would surely like to get your guy's feeling on this.

 

 

Johan Olivier2008-01-14 02:24:21

[Tumbleweed]

9spd with v-brakes.

[Tumbleweed]

?an even better deal would be if the bike came with disc hubs

[AndreZA]

Lower end bikes have heavy frames so you should try and get it lighter with the components which means Vs.

 

 

[scotty]

Get a decent V brake rather than a cr@ppy disk/mechanical break brake option at that price,unless you getting 2nd hand.  

 

 

[Spinnekop]

9 Speed with V's.  Just better!

 

 

[dirtrider]

Decent V-Brakes ? Please tell me more .

[Tumbleweed]

dirt rider, i rode my trance for more than a year with single digit v's. this after riding bikes with discs for years. they worked just fine.   

[scotty]

Shimano XTR V-Brake looks like this

[dirtrider]

I suppose they work fine if you "ride" around .

[scotty]

  Ouch

[dirtrider]

OK those things looks like the stuff I got on my Makro bike . Does it actually work ? Looks like high maintenance gadgets .

[Guest Big H]

?an even better deal would be if the bike came with disc hubs

 

Getting disks would mean getting new wheels or new hubs and a wheel rebuild. Also ensure that the bike you get has seperate brake levers and shifter pods. If you go disk and your bike does not have the option you will have to buy new shifter pods (Shimano Rapidfire) as well.

 

[TarmacPro]

I would go for the V-brakes. Easier and cheaper to maintain.

I hear that the mech. disks brakes is not as effective as the hydraulic disks or V-brakes.

 

 

[Guest Big H]

Decent V-Brakes ? Please tell me more .

 

Avid Arch Rivals ...... the closest thing ever to a disk..... unfortunately they are discontinued now.

[Johan Olivier]

Ok.  Let me get your feeling on this bike. Go to www.silverbacklab.com and look at their Alpine & Phoenix.  The Alpine is a 9 Spd V-Brake bike and the Phoenix is a 9 Spd Mechanical Disc bike.  Both Are in the Retail price of R3000.00 - R 4000.00. 

The Alpine is really a excellent quality for price model.  Do you think that bike need anything else to be upgraded.