>>1022270To expand further, road calipers and canti brakes have a short cable pull, whereas v-brakes have a long cable pull.
Try to use road levers with V-brakes, and you won't be able to pull enough cable to move the pads against the rim. Try to use modern MTB levers with cantis or road calipers, and you won't have enough mechanical advantage to apply pressure to the brakes - the lever will feel *very* firm in the hand and good in the stand, but it'll brake like shit out in the real world.
Yes, there are some long-pull (v-brake) compatible drop bar levers -I know both Cane Creek and Tekro make some - but no brifters, so you're stuck with bar-ends shifters (either actually on the end of the bars, converted to thumb shifters with Paul's Thumbies, or mounted on the brake lever hood with Gevenall's brake levers).
In addition to cantis, there are also mini-V brakes that are compatible with short-pull road levers. IIRC, Paul's, Tektro, and TRP all make some of these. They're super nice - a LOT of stopping power with light lever feel, but you have to set the pads very close to the rim; much closer than with cantis. So they're less forgiving of out-of-true wheels and can pack up with mud fast.
There are also adapters to mix & match long and short pull brake components. The most common type is the offset concentric pulley type - search for the Problem Solver's "Travel Agent". It's a pretty ugly hack, fiddly to set up right, and eats brake cables.
