# Running V-Brakes with STI Road levers, a Different way



## patineto (Oct 28, 2005)

And Hopefully a better & long lasting system too.

First point.

I confess have always being scare of the "Travel agent" adapters, I guess working on bikes for a long time you get to see what works, what fails and over the years I have replace way to many Fried brake cables do to the design shortcomings of this system.

Anyway I decide to experience and experiment what will happen if we run drop bars on the beloved IBIS, the only issue was how to run the STI levers and V-brakes at the same time.

Yes many years ago, IBIS came with a excellent design call the "Love Unit" but good luck finding one of them (I have search for one for at least 15 years, silly me I did not get one when I was a Ibis dealer way before that) that works really well with out any of the cable destructive tendencies of the Travel agents.

The Basic Idea is very simple, find a way to multiplied the Travel of the STI road levers that was also bullet proof and simple to use and adjust and I can fabricate or at least made a working prototype with out the need of complex machining operation.

The elements.
2... Cannondale "force 40" brake "multipliers" from the early 90'
2... adjustable Cable stops.
2... Small but very strong "Ferrules" 
1... Cheapo stem that I don't care cutting and hacking as much as i need too.
2... 55mm "Axle" to run the two Force 40 cam units. (in this case two old fork brake mounts and a 6mm bolt)
2... flat pieces of aluminum to act as cable stops.
2... "hole" cable adjuster so you can change cable tension on the fly.
2... short road bike brake cables.
2... somehow normal (no need for the tandem length) brake cables (mtb or road bike)
?... a few ferrules and cable ends

First of all I'm sorry since I'm still far better at making things that explain how they work specially in Ingles.

Here you can see the Force 40 cams and the cable in detail, the incoming cable (the shape of the cams) from the STI levers need to be on a almost vertical position so the mechanical advantage of the Cam can be achieve.









The frontal view of the setup with the cable adjusters on the top plate so the cables going to the V-brakes can be adjusted with ease.









The results so far are really promising but the levers still has some of this "Mushiness" that made the force 40 so famous in the old days.









Oh they Stop really well, but the lever almost half way to the bars to achieve the goal.








yes I'm still looking for the other roll of Purple/teal tape to finish the bars

The next step is to machine two "Dual diameter" pulleys in the same fashion of the Travel agent but in this case machining the cable routes independent of each other (one with a build in brake stop) so the cable does not get damage in anyway.









Another side advantage is that you can disconnect the cables really easy if you need to take the drop bars of the bike for transport or change of bars.

Enjoy.


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