Mercury Mrk3 Rim brakes

[KDean]

Just wondering why the fixings are on the front of the fork instead of the rear as on the Nomad ?

[mickeg]

For several reasons I wished that the canti brake posts on my Nomad Mk II were on the front like virtually every other bike manufacturer does.  That has been my only complaint about the Nomad Mk II frame and fork design.

- The orientation of the shaft on the canti posts that the brakes rotate on should be as close as possible to exactly perpendicular to a line drawn between those shafts and the axle, that way the front and rear of each brake pad both go in and out at the same rate.  But with the Nomad Mk II design, the front of the pad goes in and out much more than the rear.  The rear of my brake pads go up and down more than in and out, which mechanically makes no sense.  The brakes are much harder to adjust on my Nomad Mk II because of this. 

- There are small racks available that attach at canti brake posts.  Such racks can't be used on the Nomad Mk II like the small rack I have on my Sherpa.

- For packing my S&S bike, I have to remove the fork.  The fork would be easier to pack if the canti posts stuck out on the same side of the fork as the bend at the bottom of the fork blades.

- When I ordered the frame, I had seen the photos on-line but had not thought out clearly that I would not be able to use canti brakes, instead could only use V brakes.

Those are my most frequent complaints about that design, I am sure that I have had other complaints that do not come to mind right now.

[martinf]

When I bought my clearance Raven Sport Tour, I considered the braze-ons for the brake behind the front fork to be a negative feature, as they make it more complicated to fit a cantilever brake.

I have since got used to V-brakes.

After using the Raven Sport Tour with V-brakes for a few years, I haven't yet noticed any drawbacks compared to my two Raven Tour bikes, which have the V-brake in the "usual" position in front of the fork.

But I use my Raven Sport Tour for lightly-loaded day rides, which is almost certainly much easier on the brake pads than a Nomad used for off-road riding/loaded touring. Or, for that matter my Raven Tour bikes, one of which is used for loaded touring (plus some mild off-road riding), the other as a utility bike, often hauling fairly heavy loads, including sometimes a fairly big trailer.   

I don't have the issue that Mickeg has with packing the bike, and I don't use the small racks that fit onto the brake studs, mainly because I dislike handlebar bags.