Strengths: Work well, good stopping power (no problems locking wheels so bike skids on good tires)
Weaknesses: No real weaknesses. Adjusting them is not difficult to do, but takes a while. I've gotten them back from tune-ups misadjusted
Bottom Line:
Good brakes. Be aware that Ritchey makes several lines of brakes. This refers to their (at the time we bought them) high-end pro-linear line. Ran $50 or $60 at the time.
Bike Setup: StumpJumper with mostly LX and XT parts (XT brake levers)
Overall Rating:
Value Rating:
Submitted by
Sean Davis
a Cross Country Rider
from Tokyo Japan
Date Reviewed: June 17, 2002
Strengths: Light weight, brake-arm is stiff, has less play than others. Was kinda cheap at the lbs. Wide range of spring tension adjustability allows dialing-in of the feel at brake levers. Brake pads are interchangable w/ Shimano M-739,750. The paint used is the el cheapo variety, so by applying paint remover you can easily get rid of the butt-ugly logos. (btw why does every company have to put garish logos all over their products?)
Weaknesses: 1)Centered-force design(read hype) assumes ultra-stiff seatstay/fork and can cause excessive flex at the mounting point. For this reason, if you have an ultra-light frameset it might be a good idea to stay away from these. IMHO brake's pad mount should've been off-set to the inboard side, as the torque produced will be a lot smaller and hence less stress/flex.
2)Poor construction quality and quality control. Spring tension adjuster on one of the two pairs I've got was stuck, so I took the thing apart. The ring shaped adjuster-thingy was malformed and I had to rasp the offending thing to make it work. And to add insult to the injury, one of the cartridge-holders was defective. The anchor bolt pulled right through before I even got to tighten it. So I went back to the lbs to get a refund but found that they were selling XTR pads(M750) w/ cartridge holders for 5$(probably by a mistake). I bought a pair of those instead and replaced the pads w/ the ones that came on the Ritchy brakes. The saving grace of the pro-V was that, installation and adjustment was very easy and went without any incidents.
Bottom Line:
Quality control is very supect, so be sure to inspect every part of the brake before installation as there might be some defects. You might end up having to do extra work as I did. May be that's why I was able to get these cheap. Performance-wise these work pretty good, but if you have an ultra-light frameset stay away from these as they'll put extra stress upon the frame (even with a brake booster). I recommend reading the brake pad reviews before going out for a ride. The brake set I got came with the blue pads and they seem to be on the abrasive side. I just switched to the black ones and these are working fine so far. I haven't heard anything good about the red ones. I think these are ideal for crmo frames but who has 'em nowadays? If you can aford avid SD7's get 'em, they are way superior.
Strengths: Awsome brakes the best I have ever used. Great stopping power. Great durability. I have used every other break no other touches the ritchey pro V brake 2000
I've only used these on two rides so far, but they are great for the price! Supergo Special! Nothing wrong with these babies yet! Except the pads may have a shorter life than most... just get KoolStops!
Bike Setup: GT Ricochet frame, XT Drivetrain, Manitou Fork, Spox rear, Crosslink front
Overall Rating:
Value Rating:
Submitted by
Scott O
a Cross Country Rider
from Newport RI
Date Reviewed: April 29, 2000
Strengths: strong-relative to other cantilevers
Weaknesses: not as good as a good set of v's need to always check their adjustment
Bottom Line:
Rode em @4+ years and swore I'd never get v brakes because these worked so well. Happened to find a killer deal on xt vbrakes and now I'll never go back to cantilevers excpet maybe on a backup bike. However, these stood the test of time and were a classic in their day. 4 freakin chiles.
(oh yeah- these withstood dozens and dozens of crashes. My XT levers just bent after a few mos. of riding)
Submitted by
Ace
a Cross Country Rider
from Wisconsin
Date Reviewed: January 28, 2000
Strengths: Super light, VERY low cost, look great, feel great, solid as a rock!
Weaknesses: Friends will want to steal them after you ride a stoppie past them down a hill.
Bottom Line:
TOP brakes. I am talking about the "Pro" V brakes not canties or the comp V brakes Zero detectable flex with the I-beam construction (only visible flex is in the frame/forks even with titanium booster). Super easy to set up, and the cartridge pads mean set up doesn't change when you change pads. Lighter than XT, Lighter than XTR! MUCH more adjustible brake spring tension than the rest. THESE brakes mean that the ONLY reason to get disks is if you are melting your pads! Or ride exclusively in mud. 5 Roasting Mr. Hankeys
These are rubbish. Your better buying an anchor and throwing it down when you need to brake. I had these for a year!! I finally got some XT V's and GOD!! I can brake properly, when I want, and I don't have to think about 3 seconds before I stop. ONE WORD : cheese
Im really tall,more than 6 feet and over 240 pounds.Im a really monster and these brakes are the best!!!Super light,super power and not too difficult to adjust (pretty easy,to tell the truth).never lacks power and there is no words to describe it.Simple amazing!!!Tom Ritchey wouldnt put his name on bad products and these brakes are like Tom.Simple and effective.I'm very surprised with this low rating...it should be higher.
Submitted by
The Old Crank
a weekend warrior
from Atlanta, GA
Date Reviewed: July 25, 1997
Bottom Line:
Impossible to set up properly. I finally tossed them (expensive but oh so satisfying) and put on a set of Avid Tri Aligns. They set up in minutes and stay that way!
Submitted by
Kona Boy
a cross-country rider
from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
Date Reviewed: January 21, 1997
Bottom Line:
I have been using these brakes for a season and they have held up well. They are quite inexpensive. Once set up they work smoothly and provide adequate stopping power. They key thing is to set up the brakes to maximize leverage. This takes some quality time but once they are set up they work fine.
Submitted by
Jon Downey
a cross-country rider
from Thornhill(Toronto), Canada
Date Reviewed: December 17, 1996
Bottom Line:
Great brakes!! Best Canti's on the market, personaly I prefer them over V's because of their smooth controlled feel. V Brakes are nice but pricey when you get it complete, and there is a small margin between low power and high power, it just seemed as though you had on, or off. Ritchey's had a very nice feel,you could always get the amount of power you wanted.Only negative is high speeds or extremely steep situations, they lacked power.Overall great brakes
Submitted by
Alec Flett
a weekend warrior
from Pittsburgh, PA
Date Reviewed: December 5, 1996
Bottom Line:
They suck. Not only do they shift around while you tighten them, but one of the screws bent while I was trying to tighten and hold the brake pad in place at the same time. I think they're actually licensed from Dia Compe... I love Ritchey stuff, but not this! :)Maybe they actually work well once aligned correctly, but I spent about 8 hours total over the course of a few weeks, and NEVER got these even CLOSE to correct..I thought I was retarted or something until I got my replacement Avid's which took me all of about 5 minutes to align...
Submitted by
Jeremy Clark
a racer
from Cle Elum, WA USA
Date Reviewed: December 2, 1996
Bottom Line:
Though they aren't V-brakes the Logic Brakes are super cool. They came with my '95 Kona Cinder Cone but I would still say they are a good deal. They not only are cheaper than V-Brakes (except LX, if you call that a V-brake) plus you don't need those cooky special levers. My friend has a '95 Stumpjumper (steel) and it came with the old shool LX brakes, our bikes were very close in price but the brakes on mine work much better. I've tried alot of old school canti's but I haven't rode with any V's. I may be missing out or something, but my Ritchey Logic Brakes work just fine for me.
Submitted by
Jeremy Clark
a racer
from Cle Elum, WA USA
Date Reviewed: November 13, 1996
Bottom Line:
Though they aren't V-brakes the Logic Brakes are super cool. They came with my '95 Kona Cinder Cone but I would still say they are a good deal. They not only are cheaper than V-Brakes (except LX, if you call that a V-brake) plus you don't need those cooky special levers. My friend has a '95 Stumpjumper (steel) and it came with the old shool LX brakes, our bikes were very close in price but the brakes on mine work much better. I've tried alot of old school canti's but I haven't rode with any V's. I may be missing out or something, but my Ritchey Logic Brakes work just fine for me.
Submitted by
Erik Su
a cross-country rider
from Ithaca, NY
Date Reviewed: June 18, 1996
Bottom Line:
These brakes are indeed nice. More power than my old Shimano brakes, but I am not sure whether this is due to the Ritchey brake pads. However, my personal opinion of brakes is that if they are easy to adjust, then they will perform awesome, but if they are hard to adjust, they are not worth the money. Ritcheys are _not_ easy to adjust. No harder than stock Shimano cantis, but that's not saying much.
I managed to pop the front brake line on my new XT785 brakes. Any opinions on the best replacement, and or what I need to replace\bleed them? I've been mtn biking for 25 years an Read More »
On my Shimano BR-M595 hydros, which I got in 2010 for my Kona Dew Plus, in recent months I have noticed that brake power has gotten really shoddy. One example of this, at the start Read More »
I burst the front brakeline today on my 2012 sf 100 (xt785). I'm a little miffed because it was due to rubbing against the other lines. I should have noticed that they were too l Read More »
Ok, a little backround first. I'm a service manager of an lbs. A local racer brings in his very expensive carbon race bike with worn out XX brakes. He says like 10 races and they a Read More »
Actually i'm running a pair of avid juicy 3 200/185mm.
I'm weight about 100kg(220lbs).
I'm riding a Specialized Pitch with a lyric dual position RC2L.:thumbsup:
I notice that on Read More »
