Drop bar shifters and v-brakes: Gravel bike conversion

[lloydkayak]

Hi,

Anyone got any experience or ideas for converting long pull calipers (v brakes on a giant escape) to something that works with drop bar (sora) shifters?
 

Options:

- find mini v brake calipers (cant find any locally)?

- do some kind of cantilever caliper conversion?

- magic and/or who needs brakes?

 

Any advice welcome.

[Chadvdw67]

Real men dont use brakes.....

[MORNE]

https://isikosports.co.za/Cane-Creek-Drop-V-Brake-Levers-p90486606
 

these with bar end/friction shifters. 

 

[Martin PJ]

Tandem brakes use a conversion, work really well.

[RossTopher]

i did this on a giant escape with 105 5601 shifters.

kept the stock brakes for a while until i found a cheap shimano r353 front which is 90mm (so semi mini-V) and a slight upgrade. i will still consider the Tektro 926 down the line.

it works perfectly well, considering:

• the pads need to be close to the rim to minimise lever travel
• wheels must be true, or will cause gentle rub because of the spacing
• 38mm tyres needed to be deflated, or v-brake unhooked to remove wheels
• the stock wheels are a great width and setup easily. i recently changed to a maddux rear (same int width) but is a little wider outer and harder to set the brake position

[lloydkayak]

Hi All,
I wanted to post an update here in case anyone catches this thread with similar queries.

I got hold of a set of drop bars and old Sora 8 speed shifters and new cables and housing. The conversion was pretty easy and I can confirm the stock V-brakes on the Giant Escape work fine. The reason for this is that the tekro brakes on the Giant Escapes have slightly shorter arms than the shimano standard v-brakes (I have two of these bikes one 2012 the other probably 2016 or newer). The arm is around 80mm which is sort of between the standard v-brake and the mini-v.

The bike rides really well in this configuration, because the frame was slightly small for me, the jump to drops increased the reach to something really nice, a little more aggressive.

I will try upload photos once I take them.

Nils at Woodstock Cycleworks has helped me loads with the conversion and I would seriously get him involved if you are doing this. He helped me set the shifting to a whole new level and is currently replacing the crank on my bike.

(The Sora cables - I think it was the brake cables - are not the same size as mtb ones so know that going in or suffer a second trip to the LBS)

[RossTopher]

great news Lloyd

they are so versatile, have great geometry (almost the same as the Revolt) and soak up the bumps. as mentioned, i did the same sort of conversion and its done loads of dirt roads and a weeklong tour thorugh the Karoo. My only splurge was on a set of Roval SLX 24 wheels and 40mm Pirelli Cinturato Gravel M, which completely transformed it.

the ONLY foible was when i took it through one too many muddy crossings and on the last, deepest one, the wheels dug in.

it's only then when you understand the benefit of disc brakes, as it was painstaking cleaning the brakes and my brand new rims to avoid scraping. sacrificed a whole bottle of water and a pair of socks cleaning them, but was then perfect for the next 60km.