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Mercian 1985

Adam Fincham2026-09-04 08:00:14

I have recently bought and almost restored a 1985 Mercian tandem. Having a little issue with the brakes and need some advice. 

It had both original brakes routed to one lever and the arai brake routed to another , I've since routed the arai brake to a lever on the stoker bars and added STI shifter for the 3 x 7 gearing. I put a suntour self energising canti on the rear which works well but having mistakenly bought 2 and put one on the front I did not realise they were rear specific. It doesn't bit the rim at a particularly nice angle and though it works it's not massively powerful as a result. I then bought and tried a tektro oryx and the problems with that are... The bolts are too long for the short posts and... The brakes sit too close to the frame and the pads don't clear the fork legs. 

Does anyone have a suggestion of a suitable front brake that will modulate well with a drop bar lever ?

It has 27 inch wheels 

Thanks in advance 

Adam Fincham2026-09-04 08:06:57
Graham Culver2026-09-04 08:31:04

I've had some success converting my On One Cyclecross frame  commuter from canti brakes to mini V brakes. (85 - 90 mm long rather than 100-110 for conventional V brakes) 

I've not been initiated into the dark art of canti brake adjustment, but I couldn't get the kind of stopping power that I wanted from the fairly high end canti's that were installed when I bought the bike. 

Research suggested that mini V's would work with dropped levers. (even if not officially) I got hold of some Shimano 90mm V brakes and I purchased adjustable V brake noodles, which I think came from Amazon. 

I'm pleased with the results. A massive improvement to braking power. I need to stay on top of the adjustment, but that's not difficult to do. Its a bit of a fiddle getting the front wheel out sometimes. Unhitched the V brakes don't quite clear my 35mm tyres, but it looks as that would not be a problem on your tandem. 

When I did the conversion I knew that I could add a V brake converter - but havn't felt the need to do that. 

Hope that helps! 

Adam Fincham2026-09-04 08:51:25
Thanks , at the very least it gives me a wider range of options to look at 
Adam Fincham2026-09-04 08:52:28
I think the main issue with mini Vs is how wide the pivot part of the body is , on the short posts are the pads going to clear the fork , there's not a huge amount of room to work with 
Mark Tipping2026-09-04 08:58:33

Hi Adam

What is the distamce between the brake studs on your forks?  Older canti brakes were a 55 to 65mm spacing, modern spacing for v and similar brakes is 65 to 80mm ish.  

Usual problem is getting clearance for the psds between rim and fork blade.

The TRP CX series of short straight pull brakes are made for drop levers such as your with less cable pull than flat bar levers for v brakes.  If they are too wide swop out the pads for avid cartridge type which are slimmer profile than the stock TRP pads and can sort the issue.  

I run a tandem with TRP CX 8.4 front and rear on campy ergo levers and they are great stoppers.  I have added travel agents and the campy "big hand" lever shims to improve the available cable travel as I tend to roll downhill fast and brake hard for bends etc.

Let us know how you solve the issue.

Mark Tipping