Quoted message said:"Bruce McAdam" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
Quoted message said:On the contrary, a spongy feel indicates more mechanical
advantage.
Quoted message said:High mechanical advantage means that when the pads have
made contact with the rim if you continue to pull on the
brake lever the force from you fingers is magnified
sufficiently to compress the pads and bend the brake
arms. This results in a spongy feel.
"Peter B" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
Quoted message said:The sponginess may also be due to flex in the system which
wastes effort. IME the most powerful brakes I've used,
both cable and hydraulic, have the least sponginess.
You are not comparing like with like here. (You are
comparing different brakes, rather than different
configurations of the same brakes.)
The source of the sponginess is due to the flex in the
system. Given a choice between brakes with low flex and a
brake with high flex go for the brakes with low flex --
these will transfer more of the force from your fingers into
the brakes and will feel less spongy. But when setting up
the brakes, if you want higher mechanical advantage you will
increase the sponginess.
High mechanical advantage is not necessarily a good thing.
It requires you to pull the lever further (and when the
lever touches the handlebar you can't brake any harder). It
puts additional stress on the cable clamp, which could make
the cable slip (and when the cable slips your brakes become
useless). Under exteme circumstances it could bend or damage
the brakes, forks or rims.
Bruce
