Sora STI and V Brakes

Yes and no. The problem is that the brake levers won’t work with V-brakes. A couple of ways to make it work is to get a travel agent for the brakes. This will adjust the amount of cable pull so the levers and the brakes will work together. Or you could change the V-brakes to cantilever brakes as they will work with those brake levers.
The other problem I believe is that the front shifter will not work with a mtn front derailleur. You could change the derailleur to a road version, but they are often bottom pull and the mtn derailleurs are often top pull.
Now I could be way off base on the front derailleur issues so hopefully somebody will correct me or confirm.
I modified my mtn bike to have drop bars by using the cantilever brakes and I used barcons for the shifters. I got the aero brake levers that work with canti’s and the front shifter with the barcons is friction so no problems.
Good luck.

wiredued said:

Can I put drop bars and sti shifters on my mountain bike? Will the Sora sti brake levers operate v brakes? Thanks

I doubt you will be able to get them positioned well enough to use them effectively. Why not use MTB ****ers on your MTB? ebay is your friend 🙂

wiredued said:

Can I put drop bars and sti shifters on my mountain bike? Will the Sora sti brake levers operate v brakes? Thanks

ONE other option is to put a MINI V-brake on the front ... you can continue to use the standard V-brake on the rear ...

If you opt to use a double crank instead of a triple, then the SORA shifter will work with a MTB front derailleur -- I used a 9-speed 105 with an 8-speed XT front derailleur & a double crankset ... I didn't try the road shifters with the MTB derailleur + triple crank.

Alfeng,
I think I heard about the mini V-brakes working okay with the road levers, thanks for the reminder. How is it that the regular V-brakes will work in the back but not the front? Perhaps if the OP is going to get a mini V for the front, might as well get one for the back, or canti's all around.

guidosan said:

Alfeng,
I think I heard about the mini V-brakes working okay with the road levers, thanks for the reminder. How is it that the regular V-brakes will work in the back but not the front? Perhaps if the OP is going to get a mini V for the front, might as well get one for the back, or canti's all around.

Because of the different cable pull rate of a ROAD brake lever & a V-brake lever (which is more), the pads on a standard V-brake have to be set fairly close to the rim to ensure you don't 'bottom out' the brake lever against the handlebar when closing the caliper.

I found that the cable "stretch" in the longer rear brake cable was good-enough to not make the closure of a rear V-brake with a road lever to be "okay" ...

The frame on which I mixed a V-brake with road levers was a Hybrid on which I used a standard ROAD fork, so I used a regular road caliper on the front ...

It has been suggested that a standard V-brake could also be used on the front with a road lever WITHOUT a travel agent, but I don't recommend it.

Wow alot to consider this is a busy forum thanks for the replies. I like the canti lever idea but I have trouble adjusting them so I need to think about that. I wonder if mni v brakes would fit my fenders.

alfeng said:

.... you can continue to use the standard V-brake on the rear ....

That is opposite my experience. A front v-brake operated from a canti/caliper lever is doable thanks to the minimal slack in the setup, while I've never been fully satisfied with running a rear v-brake from a canti/caliper lever.
IME it's hard to get both rim clearance and sufficient braking power before the lever bottoms out due to the slack in the long cable and multiple transitions.

Then again I'm not troubled by the supposed lack of modulation rumored to plague mismatched setups.

wiredued said:

.. I like the canti lever idea but I have trouble adjusting them ...

But there are cantis and there are cantis. Smooth post Cantis can be awkward, but there are Cantis for threaded posts as well. Setting up one of those is just like adjusting a V-brake.

alfeng said:

..It has been suggested that a standard V-brake could also be used on the front with a road lever WITHOUT a travel agent, but I don't recommend it.

I've used that on several occasions. (well, not a road lever but a canti lever..) I had zero issues with the actual braking characteristics, but it does require a tight set-up and very straight wheels.

With that said, I liked Travel Agents more. Made it all much more forgiving. As a bonus they also let you ditch those pesky noodles, which always tends to wear out and jam at the most inconvenient moment.