After many unsuccessful attempts to quiet the Shimao XT V-brakes on my mountain bike, I gave up and "downgraded" to Deore brakes without the parallel linkage. I installed them with Koolstop brakeshoes (with integral threaded stem). The installation instructions for the brakes say that the distance between the linkage holding the "pipe" and the second brake arm should be at least 39 mm. I end up with about 28 mm, even when I arrange the washers on the brake shoes to have the largest spacing to the inside (6 mm). Given that there is still enough tire clearance, is there any possible problem with the reduced spacing?
Thanks for your advice.
-- Ned Mantei Department of Cell Biology, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland
After many unsuccessful attempts to quiet the Shimao XT V-brakes on my mountain bike, I gave up and "downgraded" to Deore brakes without the parallel linkage. I installed them with Koolstop brakeshoes (with integral threaded stem). The installation instructions for the brakes say that the distance between the linkage holding the "pipe" and the second brake arm should be at least 39 mm. I end up with about 28 mm, even when I arrange the washers on the brake shoes to have the largest spacing to the inside (6 mm). Given that there is still enough tire clearance, is there any possible problem with the reduced spacing?
Thanks for your advice.
guess your frame spacing is set for xt. your new solution should still work with the smaller spacing, but if you ride in mud, the very high wear rate can easily mean you're quickly in trouble if the arms get too close.
regarding one last attempt at using the xt's, you may want to look into a brake booster. i fitted one of these http://www.cambriabike.com/brakes/salsa_carbon_arc_brake_booster.htm and found it very effectively killed the squeal on one frame i have. the reason for the salsa is that it's big and doesn't flex. some others i've seen, especially the alloy ones, are next to useless.
