Avid Single Digit 7 Brake

Author's product rating:   

Value for money	Good
Durability	Excellent
How does it compare to similar products?	Excellent

Advantages:	Well made .  Well finished .  Excellent durabilty .  Quality piece of kit
Disadvantages:	Come equipped with Rim Wranglers Brake Pads

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

A bit of History

V-brakes were originally developed by Shimano, and were an improvement on the older centre pull cantilever brakes. By lengthening the arms the amount of force applied to the rim could be increased, so improving braking performance.

V-brakes are now being superseded by disc brakes. Disc brakes offer vastly superior wet weather braking performance, and are the brake of choice where extreme performance is required i.e. freeride and downhill.

And the Avids?

The single digit 7's feature Force Vector Alignment, and stainless hardware. Build quality and finish is excellent. I know because I have some Deore's and Tektro's to compare them against.

Durability is good too - paint and fittings have lasted extremely well despite 2 years worth of being sprayed with mud and then hosed down by yours truly. No doubt the stainless hardware is the main factor in the lack of rustiness.

It is also possible to strip, grease, and rebuild the calipers with the use of a punch to separate the bushes, followed by careful use of a vice to press them back together.

What about the competition?

The simple fact is that V-brake performance is influenced more by cable condition and pad condition/performance, than it is by the make of V-brake. Ultimately the amount of power a V-brake can deliver is limited by the span of a human hand. You can improve performance by lengthening the V-brake arms, but you now need to pull the lever further to generate the same amount of movement in the brake arm. Lengthen your v-brake arms too much, and the brake lever will hit the bar before you've applied any force to the rim. Which is why the arms of different V-brakes are all the same length, and will all perform similarly.

From personal experience pads and cables are more important than make of v-brake. I can't really detect much of difference between the avids, deore's or the tektro's. Avid's mysterious FVA, which is supposed to reduce boss splay, doesn't seem to translate into a performance difference I can detect on the trail. I can however tell the difference between an old cable and a new cable, and between cheap and quality brake pads though.

Regardless of hypothetical performance considerations, the Avid's have worked without fault or problem for the last 2 years, without the need for constant fiddling or fettling. They just work, enough said really.

Rim Wranglers? Rim Wreckers!

The single digit's come with Avid's Rim Wranglers. I personally dislike these pads. While they are fine in the dry, in the wet they are truly horrible. They provide next to no braking, and they wear extremely quickly. This would be forgiveable, if they weren't so destructive to the rim surface.

Overall

My single digit's are a well made, well finished bit of kit that look nearly as good today as they did when I first got them. The fact that I haven't broken them yet makes them worth every penny. Just need to watch the brake pad choice.

For those wanting to hang on a little longer to the lighter weight, ease of maintenance and retro chic of V's, then look no further than a set of Single Digit 7's.