Drop Bar Appaloosa and how to pull more cable

[Edwin W]

I have not seen (m)any photos of Appaloosas with a drop bar. I wanted to do something new this spring, and my wallet did not want me to get a new bike, so I put on some drops.

I had tried this a few years ago with my Sam, and it never felt great, so I got a shorter stem this time (7cm vs 9cm). Then I put yellow Newbaum's on with a light coat of clear shellac. Spring time!

One thing I don't love is that I got the absolute tallest V Brakes I could find when I bought this, and those tall V Brakes need the absolute most cable pull... and the tektro v brake levers for drop bars bottom out. They stop the bike, but no room to spare! Any ideas on how to pull more cable save for getting those pulley add on things? I was thinking of trying another washer on the inside of the arm to put the tops of the arms a little further apart. Will that make a difference?

Photos

I would love to see pictures any other drop bar Appaloosas.

Edwin

[Rusty Click]

There is a product called a "Travel Agent" that increases cable pull.  A friend has them on his LHT, and he has no complaints.  You can find install videos on the inter-web.

rusty

[Bill Lindsay]

I don't really like the design of those brakelevers.  They curve way in towards the bar, like they are 'short reach' levers for riders with small hands.  That sacrifices a bunch of additional cable pull that you could have had.  If it were me, I might go look for a pair of Dia Compe 287 levers and start over. 

Bill Lindsay
El Cerrito, CA

[Drw]

If you are using the tektro linear pull/V brake drop levers, they shouldn't bottom out before fully braking the bike. Is it possible that you have the QR part of the lever set in the "open" position? Otherwise, i think this is a set up issue, probably at the brakes themselves. how close are the pads to the rim? is the housing seated correctly in the lever? I'm not a fan of those tektro levers for other reasons, but you should be able to get them to pull enough cable to stop the bike more than adequately without hitting the bars.

[Bob Lovejoy]

I do not have any truly current pictures of my Appaloosa but I took a couple late last year.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/21182339@N05/24939405718/in/album-72157682579281726/

If the weather here will clear for more than a day or two, I will get better and more pictures.  The bike now has Berthoud stainless fenders and (I think) 700x40 Schwalbe Mondial tires.

I am using a 6cm stem but I love the bike with drop bars.  Every time I ride it now, it is very easy to imagine riding it a long, long way and has made any idea of needing, even wanting, a different touring bike seem totally unnecessary.

I use cantilever brakes (Shimano CX-70's) but the only advice I can offer is to make sure your brake pads run pretty close to the rim as I believe V-brakes are designed for that fairly minimal distance between pad and rim.  You obviously do not want pads rubbing but close is a good thing with V-brakes.

I do think your bike looks great!

Bob Lovejoy

Galesburg, IL

[Sky Coulter]

I bought my appaloosa with the intent of using dropbars, so I chose to sizedown b/w the 55 and 58cm versions b/c the stack and reach numbers looked good on the 55.  This leaves me with quite a bit of seatpost showing, but otherwise seems to work as intended.  I have the tektro rl520 brakes and avid sd 7 v-brakes and find I have tremendous stopping power and acceptable modulation.  I previously had the diacompes that Bill mentioned on a trek 520, but really found the shape wasn't comfortable for my hands (although they were good enough to get me across canada).  Personally, I much prefer the tektros.

A pic is attached.

Sky in new west

[Hunter Harr]

No help on brake, used TRPs and VO Cantilevers. Here are some poor pictures of my Joe with drops using a Dirt Drop stem and some Noodles.

On Monday, March 5, 2018 at 3:42:59 PM UTC-5, Edwin W wrote:

[Jeremy Till]

Are the brake levers in the pictures the ones that bottom out?  If so, I think you somehow ended up with wrong levers.  Those look like Tektro RL340's, which are short-pull (caliper/canti) levers: 

http://www.tektro.com/products.php?p=72

The RL520's are the v-brake compatible levers and they have a much taller profile: 

http://www.tektro.com/products.php?p=71

On Monday, March 5, 2018 at 12:42:59 PM UTC-8, Edwin W wrote:

[Bob Lovejoy]

Wow...!  My money is on what Jeremy is saying....  Great eye, great (potential) catch!!

Bob

[Edwin W]

Detective Till,

If you are correct, I am going to be annoyed at my local bike shop.... but not forever, since they take good care of me. And I did such a good job of wrapping the bars!

I'll check it out tonight... but I think you are right, since I had the same problem with flat bars a number of years ago until I learned about long pull levers.

Learning, always learning,

Edwin

[Edwin W]

Darn it.... Jeremy was right!
Now, I guess I have to un wrap the whole bars and replace the levers and re wrap?

Ugggggg.

Edwin

[Ray Varella]

Before you unwrap your bars, see if the clamps are interchangeable.
You may be able to remove the levers from the clamp and mount your new levers to the existing clamps.

Ray

[Joe Bernard]

Bingo! I'm almost certain this will work with same-brand levers. Good call, Ray! 😎

[Lum Gim Fong]

Edwin,

Whats the reach as measured from tip o the saddle nose to center of bartop clamp?

[Edwin W]

Ray,

That is genius!

Edwin

[Edwin W]

Tip o’ the nose of the saddle to center of clamp is 51.75 cm.

Edwin

[Edwin W]

Update: Thank you all so much for your help. They did turn out to be the wrong levers, so my LBS switched them out using the Ray "keep the clamp, switch the levers" Varella trick, and all is good.

Long pull levers sure do make a big difference with V brakes. Haha. 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/90785999@N06/39018444880/in/album-72157666755295618/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/90785999@N06/39018444890/in/album-72157666755295618/

Edwin

On Monday, March 5, 2018 at 2:42:59 PM UTC-6, Edwin W wrote: