Finally was able to get my Shimano Deore V-Brakes onto my Surly Long Haul Trucker. I mentioned a while ago that I was unhappy with my stock Tektro cantilever brake performance on the LHT. So I decided to give V-Brakes a try after reading some posts on the Long Haul Trucker and Cross Check owners google group. V-Brakes need more cable travel than cantilever brakes so you need to make sure that you get levers that are compatible! The stock levers on the LHT are no good for V-Brakes, so I switched to Tektro RL-250 levers made for drop bars but compatible with V-Brakes. There are many levels of V-brakes you can get from shimano, but once you get past Deore you're getting pretty expensive, the benefit most likely doesn't out weigh the cost I think. I stuck with Deore at $30 each for front and back.
The braking power increase is awesome! Before if I was going down a steep hill I would have to go into the hooks and really pull on the brakes to stop. Now I can lock up my wheels from the hoods! So happy I made this switch. To anyone else riding a LHT and is only so-so about your brakes, just throw some linear pull/v-brakes on there and try it out! I am real happy I did.
I've also been playing with touching up my photos a little bit, and am starting to watch some tutorial videos to try and get a better result straight from the camera. Here are my first two retouches.
Alanna in Petty Harbour
Angel in Flatrock Grotto
