Silver V-Brakes?!?!?

[Jeff Z]

I was excited to see Silver v-brakes mentioned in Grant's portion of tonight's Rivendell email. Does anyone know if these would be long pull or short pull? I was thinking possibly short pull since he refers to the "difficulty" some folks have with modulation. I am now using brifters on my 2022 Sam with Motolites and Travel Agent knockoff. 

After various cockpit scenarios, I like the brifters very much. They are short pull and I find the Motolite/TA combo to be....inelegant. I was considering trying to trade for a set of MiniMotos, but would wait for the Silvers, if they are short pull. I'm open to suggestions and idle conjecture. 

Jeff

[ANDREW LETTON]

Long pull. It is inherent in the geometry of the v-brake lever length, if you want to also clear large tires and fenders. 

Sorry to disappoint!

That said, I have had excellent results using a “Travel Agent” in conjunction with short pull levers and v-brakes. Others report different experiences, so as they say, YMMV! :-)

cheers,

Andrew

(Painstakingly pecked out on my iPhone; please pardon my brevity and tpyos.)

On 7 Nov 2026, at 12:58 pm, Jeff Z <jeff.ze...@gmail.com> wrote:

I was excited to see Silver v-brakes mentioned in Grant's portion of tonight's Rivendell email. Does anyone know if these would be long pull or short pull? I was thinking possibly short pull since he refers to the "difficulty" some folks have with modulation. I am now using brifters on my 2022 Sam with Motolites and Travel Agent knockoff. 

After various cockpit scenarios, I like the brifters very much. They are short pull and I find the Motolite/TA combo to be....inelegant. I was considering trying to trade for a set of MiniMotos, but would wait for the Silvers, if they are short pull. I'm open to suggestions and idle conjecture. 

Jeff

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[Dan]

Random suggestion but Path Less Pedalled said they have a video coming up which compares several canti / mini-V options from affordable ones up to Pauls. 

I'm interested in these Silvers and keen to know if they have slightly longer arms to maximise fender clearance too?

I have DXR Vs on my Appaloosa now which look and work incredibly. I understand their arms are a touch shorter than usual though so if I ever wanted to run fenders I might have to swap for some longer-armed ones (the Silvers?!) to get a nice fender line.

[derek zeitel]

Are folks having issues clearing chubby tires with V-brakes on their Rivs? I have Tektro 857 AL's with Kool Stop thinlines on my Susie and they easily clear a 2.6 tire that is over-inflated. 

Derek Z

[Garth]

The Silver V's also have the pad mounted further ahead than say a Paul, Tektro and all those that copied the silly design to mount the pads so that when you wanted to open the brakes fully to clean your pads, you couldn't because the pads hit the tubes. Using thin pads was an attempt to compensate for it, but it doesn't because the pads still hit the tubes when releasing the brake. Grant mentioned this in his blog, but we both knew when it was first introduced what seems so long ago and many manufacturers of both V and Canti brakes copied that design as they often do. It was a step backwards, as it makes no performance difference at all. So the new Silver V uses standard thickness road sized (54mm) pads and they're offset from the arms enough to clear the tubes. 

On Saturday, November 7, 2026 at 2:19:28 AM UTC-5 Dan wrote:

[derek zeitel]

Garth,

Yes, but... My Tektro's with thinlines clear a 2.6"  on my Susie with ease.  Riv's are designed for relatively wide tires, are folks having issues removing inflated tires with off-the-shelf v-brakes on their Rivs?

[Garth]

Clears the tubes to remove the tire, yes, but they don't open past the tubes so you can't easily clean the pad surface or change them for that matter. I forget that many riders today may consider that normal as they've never seen anything different. Canti brake pad mounts were originally always offset and even had road sized pads and thus fully opened for pad cleaning and replacing. Later on, someone thought it was good idea to elongate the pads so they'd no longer clear the tubes. Then another thought it was a good idea to have the pad mounts inline with the arm. A third genius then came up with thinline pads to attempt to cover up the other two errors. This trio of errors never made a better brake. The bottom line is brakes pads don't have to hit the tubes, and the pads don't have to be long. Those are conscious design choices that in the real wolrd of riding doesn't make for a better brake, and that's one of the things the Silver brakes are addressing.

 I suppose some will say, yes, but Paul Cantis or V's are great, so that justifies it. No it doesn't. That the brakes work well enough doesn't mean another design doesn't work just as well. I suspect CNC machining limitations may have more to do with their design than anything else. We'll never know because apparently they sell and Paul has no reason to redesign it. Suntour XC Pro cantis, for example, are astoundingly good rwith offset pad mounts and road sized pads. But Suntour didn't last so it's a terrific brake few know about and wil ever experience. The Silver brakes are just Riv's way of returning a feature that should have never been overlooked to begin with. 

[michael stallman]

Not the cantis or mini-motos, but Paul Moto-lite can be flipped.

The installation instructions step 4 mention:

"If pads are interfering with frame or forks, clamps can be turned over so that the pads are on the other side of the brake arm, moving them away from the frame or fork."

[Dorothy C]

Derek, the Susie, from what I gather has a wider fork than some other Rivs. My 2016 model 26" Appaloosa definitely needs a bit of tire deflation to remove a 2.1" tire past the brake pads, so I tend to run a 1.8" max, especially as I like fenders on that bike. Sams, I believe are similar.

[derek zeitel]

Dorothy,

Thanks for answering my question. I suspected this may be the case as the Susie has an obviously wide fork - but was not certain. Sounds like the Silver v-brakes will be useful for folks. I'll be building a MIT Atlantis in the near future and have another pair of the Tektro 857 on deck, will be interesting to see how they work on the Atlantis. The 857's do have a lot going for them - they are inexpensive, available in polished silver (not silver paint) and have what are among the longest arms available on a v-brake at 110mm. They are also, IMO, very nice and svelte looking.

Best,

Derek Z

[Scott Garrison]

Back to the short pull/long pull conversation: For those looking for v-brake performance with short pull brifters, I recently installed Shimano Sora mini-v's I was able to find online in the UK for a reasonable price and they have been working great. For reference, this is a 700x42 tire in the pic. Plenty of clearance for probably up to a 45mm tire. I'm using Sora brifters as well and the brake action is perfect.

[Jeff Zelevansky]

Those Soras are classy. Any idea when they’re from?

On Nov 9, 2026, at 11:17 AM, Scott Garrison <scotti...@gmail.com> wrote:

Back to the short pull/long pull conversation: For those looking for v-brake performance with short pull brifters, I recently installed Shimano Sora mini-v's I was able to find online in the UK for a reasonable price and they have been working great. For reference, this is a 700x42 tire in the pic. Plenty of clearance for probably up to a 45mm tire. I'm using Sora brifters as well and the brake action is perfect.

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[Scott Garrison]

Jeff,

You can find them from Spa Cycle. They are my go-to for chainrings/cranksets that are hard to find in the US. I was ordering the 46/30 chainrings and found them on their site. The shipping is not cheap, so best to bundle.

https://www.spacycles.co.uk/m7b0s101p5718/SHIMANO-Sora-BR-R353-V-Brake-%28Road-Pull%29 

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[Jeff Z]

Thank you! I actually meant what era are they from but this is even more helpful!