Levers

 Pretty much any will do. Dia-Compe tend to stay tight in the hinge longer than others and are extremely strong. Odyssey you can actually get parts to rebuild and freshen them up. Dia-Tech has a ton of styles. Just try and get one that feels good and will survive a few crashes and does not flex bad when pulled.

Cables

People tend to go cheap here. This is a bad place to skimp, especially since your only saving 2 or 3 dollars. Get something thick and/or a decent brand name. Odyssey, Dia-Compe, Giant and Shimano all make good cables. Generic cables are often just that. Generic. Pay attention to the housing as well as inner wire. That $1.50 cable from Kmart, Wal-Mart, etc.. is not going to be the same as one of the above stated ones. Go to your local shop and get a good one. It does make a difference. They never feel as good, and do not last as long. They tend to snap at the worst possible time.

I have been doing brakes for a long time, I have tried literally hundreds of brake systems and setups (seriously), watched fads come and go,  cheap cables are one of  your worst enemies. Some people will argue this 'till they are blue in the face. The argument usually ends with them riding my bike and trying my brakes. After that they usually end up coming to me to dial theirs and get advice on upgrades. That may sound conceited, but trust me on this. You need to invest in good cables (good brakes and pads too, but we will get to that shortly).

Stainless cables. These are great, they do not stretch as much and are very strong, however they have one major flaw. When you pinch them in some pinch bolts on your brakes, after once or twice the strands will start to break. The good news is that by following this guide, you won't need to worry about that, since you won't be messing with your brakes often at all once you are done.

Gyro Cables. A good Gyro/Oryg setup is not cheap, but can outperform single cable when built right, and require less maintenance. SST cables are smoother than Odysseys but honestly, they both suck. You need a you need an aftermarket cable setup to get the most out of a Gyro/Oryg setup.

Primo Pervert. While not great, when it was released was a jump in the right direction. Its design is a bit dated now.  I won't cover its install or adjustment as I feel its outdated and pretty straight forward. If you have used a Gyro/Oryg for a while, you can figure it out. I will tell you run it as close to your lever as possible, people tend to do the opposite, and that's wrong. Primo really needs to improve the instructions on this. Basically you want to minimize as much single cable as possible. Its useless on bottom, as dual cable is easier and cheaper to hookup.

Dual cables.

 First of all, let me say, anyone claiming dual cable has more friction, is full of shit and has never tried it. Stock cables are horrible. The splitters are full of friction. SST and Odyssey put Teflon in the cables, but leave the aluminum bare in the splitters, and it causes a lot of friction. Not to mention, the cables bend all over trying to get to the splitter. Then people tie the splitter down to avoid noise, only making the cable problem worse.

Dual cables are straighter, and more direct, therefore less friction. They also have less stress, stretch, flex and offer more adjustability. Each arm is adjusted separately instead of together. With a small trick you can make the adjustable together and separately (yes, I will show you how).

I do not recommend stock cables. I do not run them, and frankly never plan to ever again. Dual is cheaper, easier, and works better.

Dual upper cable systems. If your running a Gyro/Oryg with stock cables, you do not have any clue what  you are missing. If you are running a standard lever get a hold of a Dragonfly Gemini Cable. Ask your local Kink dealer, or call Kink, to find out where you can get one. If you are running Odyssey Modulevers, you already should be using the dual upper cables.

Derailleur cables for lower dual cable systems. These have some good and bad points for dual cable systems. They simplify things at the gyro assembly later as you will see later on. However be aware, they are usually about 15% thinner than a regular brake cable, and sometimes the ends are not secured as well as a brake cable, since they are not designed for the amount of stress a brake cable is subjected to. However, you are using two so stress is much less than a single brake cable. I know people do it, I have as well, but I still recommend regular and oversize for this application whenever possible. I am not saying they are wrong, but I am not saying they are right for the job either. Use at your own discretion and against my advice.

Straddle Cables and Systems. People do some weird things here. As do some companies. All have good and bad points.

Type	Picture	Good	Bad
Traditional		Cheap, curves the cable gently, easy to get, light. Comes with many brakes. The standard.	The bend is not always optimal until it works in a bit.
Odyssey		Cheap. Comes with Evolvers.  Doubles as an adjuster for Evolvers.	Heavy. Curves the cable over a sharp edge, small pinch bolt can damage the cable.
Chain/Frankenbraker		No stretch, or flex. Can be cheap if you make it yourself.	Heavy, can cause the main cable to sag. Have to modify almost ever brake to use.
Spokes	Sorry, no pic of this. They are rare and crude. Hopefully they stay that way. Ghetto.	No stretch, or flex. Can be cheap if you make it yourself.	Crude. Not very reliable, or accurate. pain in the neck. Slight modification of brakes necessary.
Avid		Light, allows more precise adjustment.	Hard to find, curves the cable tight, small pinch bolts can damage the cables.

Gyro and Oryg Systems

Some models fit over King headsets, some don't. The models change quickly and I cannot keep up with them, since you only have one choice at a time usually. Check below for how to make one fit a larger headset.

Gyro GTX

Stems and frames with Gyro tabs are great! They allow you to lower your stem, and have less flex than stock cable stops. They are also often slotted. Allowing easier assembly and disassembly. Making the larger barrel adjusters not needed, which is good since most use smaller barrels. Be aware of this if you buy a gyro with stock cables, and sometimes, the adjusters are not interchangeable on the cables they come with. Which means you will be buying a new cable as soon as you pull it out of the box :(. Check before you leave, as some shops will swap it for you if you need it.

If you have one put on at a shop, and have built-in cable stops, ask them BEFORE you have them install it, or you may be buying cables. I know it sounds cheap, but remember, most shop employees are just like you. They learn by doing and many do not even know how to tune a Gyro, much less realize there will be a problem. I am not excusing them, but that's life. Employees work for cheap just for the honor of working in a shop. My advice, read this guide, and do it yourself, but remember to  ask for the other cable only if you need it!

Brakes

Brakes have a huge impact on braking (duh!)  as well as how much maintenance you will be doing to keep your brake dialed. Some brakes hold their settings better than others. Some are easier adjust than others. Any brake has the potential to work great though (well damn near any).

Side Pulls/Caliper brakes. I am sure most of you know what these are. They come on cheap Kmart/Wal-Mart bikes, but they used to be standard on everything. Run from them as fast as possible. They suck. Plain and simple. You can get them to work well with some of my tips, but the last guy I told how to get his working well are no longer working. They worked so well, the arms snapped off. They are crap, but back in the day, it was all we had. The moral is, you can make any brake grab, the question, is can it handle it. Sidepulls cannot. By the way, its  usually the center bolt snaps before an arm.

V-Brakes. You have seen them on mountain bikes and race bikes. Why not street. Two reasons. One, they can stick out and snag you at the worst time. Two, as the above brakes, they cannot handle the stress of street. Don't get me wrong, they work great, but the posts and the way the posts are mounted are not up to the task. For a race bike or MTB they rule. Shimano rules this market. XTR's have been THE brake to own for years, and for good reason. XT's are almost just as good. New LX is right up there now too. Anything else is just a substitute, don't try to fool yourself.. As has been said though, you can get any brake to work decent though. its only how much time, money, and effort you are willing to spend.

U-Brakes. These started on mountain bikes.  Then V-brakes became the norm. Just as u-brakes started catching on in bmx, U-brakes were dead for  mountain bikes. Since Shimano did not really do much for BMX, they stopped making their wonderful U-brakes. They are still around, but they have been out of production for going  on 15 years. Dia-Compe still makes theirs, and has become the standard for U-brakes. Those that remember, still long for Shimano's though.

Since the Shimano's demise many U-brakes have sprung up. Some good, some not so good. The newcomer in it, is Odyssey. They did their homework though. They based theirs off the Shimano U-brake heavily and for good reason. The first batch had a tolerance problem, but that appears to be over. if you have a set of the old ones, and they mess up, send them in. Odyssey has great customer service.

If you have a brake I do not recommend, or is not on the list, do not fret. We can still get it to work well, but keep this list in mind next time you have some money and are willing to spend it on brakes.

Lets take a look at what's out there for U-Brakes.

Type	Summary
Shimano	No longer available. But oh so nice. Spring adjustment is odd, as you put them on, and rotate them, then lock them down. That's it! Great leverage. Lighter than they look.  Beware of the cheapie model. Shimano had several models. One was steel plates with molded plastic around them. They work good, but weigh an awful lot. Most of these are gone, as the plastic got damaged. Look for Exage (silver) or the rare XT's (black). I have seen people buy whole bikes just for these brakes (me included, I paid $15, then sold it with a  generic brake for $80 a week later). These convert to dual pinch bolt for dual cables  really easy. See below. The King of U-brakes, too bad he's dead.
Dia-Compe 990's	Oldest U-brake on the market. A bit tough to adjust, but once adjusted, you will not mess with it again. The pads are held extremely tight. Comes with good pads. Weird front  brake adapter though. A 990 properly adjusted can challenge any brake for the crown for power. If you are willing to spend a bit of time learning how to dial these, you will be happy with them. Since it will probably be the last time you mess with them for a long time. This is bulletproof braking at its best. Possibly the King of U-brakes.
Odyssey Evolver	The new kid on the block. A really nice brake. Loads of options. Comes with great pads. Excellent leverage. Easy to adjust and dial. It even comes with 2 sets of springs, and instructions, that are better than almost any other out there (still lacking in my opinion). Certain pads have trouble gripping these so the pad moves. Its not the brakes fault though, as you will see in the pad section and during install. Some people are also claiming the spring adjuster slips a occasionally. A little extra strength when tightening fixes that though. These are easy to get great braking out of. A little extra care and few tricks  when installing makes them even better. If you cannot find a Shimano, or dial a 990, or just need the new cool parts, this is your brake. If its not the King, its leading a hell of a revolution.
Dia-Tech 996  Hombre	Not a bad brake for the money. Easy to adjust, but tends to fall out of adjustment quickly. Horrible springs. Turn the spring adjuster too far one time and you'll be buying new springs. Crappy pads toss them. They flex a bit, but if you need a brake and your on a budget, these are not bad to have. However, by the time you buy good pads, you would have spent more than a 990 (its only about $3 more for a 990 as it is), or been about $3 short of an Evolver, that comes with better pads than both of those. Braking power is ok, as they flex a bit more than the brakes mentioned above. These can be great brakes, but you can buy better brakes for less by the time you get them working decent.
Dia-Tech 996  Hombre with Fiesta Pack	The Fiesta pack adds different pads, and aluminum low profile spring plates and lower bolts to the Hombre. If you have the chain clearance, save the money and buy the regular Hombre. Use the money to get better pads. This brake has all of the previous problems, except it now has  lighter, lower spring plates. For the same price you can get 990's, and by the time you buy pads, you would have spent more than an Evolver. Unless you need chain clearance, and are on a budget, I would stay away from these.
Tektro FS20	Worst springs you will ever see. Its rare to see an older FS20, since the springs break after an adjustment or two. The Hombre is just as cheap. Get that instead. or spend $3 more and get a 990. The pads, are just junk as well. As for its braking. Mush is a good way to describe it.