Right, so I am planning on a v brakes & levers purchase. CRC have got the whole XT kit for about £65 which is the cheapest anywhere. or some reason, shops dont seem to sell brakes as a whole kit.

I have also seen some more expensive Avid's. Does anyone here use either of the Avid's and if so, are they better? Is there much of a performance difference between the Avid single 5's and 7's?

Many thanks in advance.

You'll find very few people on here who use v-brakes at all!

XTs are notorious for howling, the newer, M760 generation ones are meant to be better, but you may find Avids a better choice. I think the main difference is cartridge pads and slightly lighter weight, I'd get the 7s, or mooch around on eBay for some XTRs.

Thanks Nick. You've just justified my reason to get the more expensive brake.

Re: v brakes usage, I had a feeling that I wasn't going to get much of a response on old technology.

But, thought I'd try anyway. They are to go on a very old Merida that I have had for about 10 years.

Disc brakes aren't worth the age of the bike but I wanted something that would be a resonable stopper.

I have XT v-brakes on my commuter and while they're very easy to set-up they do absolutely shreak, no matter what i do to them (like Nick says, the newer ones are supposed to be better). Buy deore or LX ; much cheaper, no squeaks!

I am using deore v brakes with xt levers on my hack bike. Very dependable setup. Only noise is that from the braking surface but nothing out of line.

Still using v's here

There is no difference between sd3's and avid ti's, they both stop you going forward.

Arch rivals work well, but cost a bit more.
The shimano v's with paralleologram thingys are horrible, squeal like a broken fanbelt.

i prefer AVid v's i think they last a bit longer and look better. Get some sd5 or 7's

I decided on the Avid's Single digit SL's and Speed Dial 7's in the end. They were heavily discounted and CRC had them in stock, plus I wanted them immediately.

Ultimately, its my brother who's going to ride the bike in Oz so he'd better like them!

Thanks to all of you again.