Opinion sought for breaking system on a StreetFox

Joined
Oct 14, 2020
Messages
22
I intend to use my StreetFox for some touring with heavy loads in remote areas, with safety first in mind.
It has a well-working v-brake on the back wheel, but I am concerned about the 2 front brakes.
Having a bad experience already with disk brakes under heavy loads in my upright touring bicycle, i simply do not want to use disk-brakes.
I am to choose between old-type caliper-brake and v-brake.

Question 1: Will 2 front caliper brakes offer good braking power? This is the default construction in the plan, with "brake support arms" in L shape. But steep downhills with heavy loads is not a joke at all!

Question 2: If i go for v-brakes, than the "brake support arms" must be in Π (double L) shape i suppose, will that be safe?

Thank you very much in advance.
PS. I promise to give a full report/description for the bike when this loooong project finally comes to an end.
:)
 
Joined
May 31, 2013
Messages
3,980
Location
South Benfleet, Essex, England, UK
Put Drum brake hubs on instead. Works a treat! :D
 
Joined
Oct 14, 2020
Messages
22
Thanks Danny, my research in the past indeed has showed it is an option, but in my country they do not exist anywhere, they must be ordered with an incredible tax overhead, no one knows anything about them, i do not want to risk it in this case. Perhaps in another project in the future if ever i try something different, this one follows the philosophy of recycling and technological simplicity.
 
Joined
Oct 19, 2012
Messages
2,384
Location
Wakefield, UK
To support v brakes you only need to go around the tyre as far as the V brake mount. This can cause issue with getting the wheel on and off. Not any problem if you have a separate bolt for the axle but if you use the std wheel's axle as the mount it may interfere as you'll need a more direct line to the mount tab with the wheel and going around the tyre with the chassis may then prevent the wheel going on. If you choose calipers make sure you get some decent double pivot ones. They still only use the same mounting point as single pivot ones but are massively better brakes owing to a better leverage. I recently acquired some Ultegra ones and couldn't believe the difference from the cheap units.

What issue did you have with discs? I've used them on light bikes and heavy trikes and would not choose v brakes or calipers over them.
 
Joined
Oct 14, 2020
Messages
22
Thanks.

I understand absolutely the thing with on/off for the wheel - the wheels have 14mm BMX axle with one-side nut-lock. Anyway i think it would be easy to unbolt the outer branch of the v-brake for taking out/in the wheel, once in a while i need to do that.

Yes, good pivot brakes are an option, i just have not found acceptable ones.

The problem with disks: doing touring with heavy loads on steep mountains last year i needed to continuously adjust and have new ones every few days. Instead in the past with v-brakes, this was not happening but i usually kept the same pads for months (it is easy to keep the rim/brake clear).
 
Joined
Oct 14, 2020
Messages
22
Frankly thanks for making me think seriously.

In this case, 2 problems to overcome are,
a. the common fixing bolt of the 2 brakes on every wheel, and
b. the 4 total tensioning cables.

Do i get it right? :)
 
Joined
Jan 16, 2011
Messages
712
Location
Vilvoorde / Flanders / Belgium
you can couple the brakes mechanicaly, and use 1 cable per 2.

There are other solutions, like dual cable levers or "PIG" cable doublers.

If you want to go realy fancy, you use 2 dual cable levers and cross the wires so each does left and right.
 
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