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@number6
road stuff uses half the cable pull as v stuff
mini vs run with normal road levers, as do cantis
long vs with road levers will be digital and snatch the brake on - plus they'll sit very near the rim.
cantis or calipers with v brake levers will be weak
to run v with drops use diacompe 287v (will actually adjust to run both ratios ) or the tektro
equivalent (or travel agent )
cantis are the only brakes where you can adjust mechanical advantage. if they are weak lower the straddle cable as near to the mudguard as it will go. it will improve brakes dramatically. . http://sheldonbrown.com/canti-trad.html
i can't believe the amount of bikes with shite braking (but not shite brakes per se ) i've seen - just wrongly adjusted on that angle. any nice alloy canti will do - even the cheap stuff works well if set up right.
and 100 quid froglegs will be crap if not set up right. and ultimately no normal brake can offer more power without reducing clearance (given a set ratio on the levers)
although multiple ratio pull mechanism are out there (cable cam and roller cam systems for eg. ) which use long gearing for the start of the stroke and lower as the pad just about hits the rim