"Bruce McAdam" wrote in message
On the contrary, a spongy feel indicates more mechanical advantage.

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" wrote in message
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