Upgrade rim brakes on classic bike

[Waldo62]

This

Originally Posted by Waldo62

Oh yeah, that was me all right. I wasn't gonna try to get out of cleats and straps on a dirt-rocky 12% grade, then walk in those shoes. Hell no! Next time, watch for me on my pearl baby blue Marastoni with SPD-compatible Look pedals.

[mhespenheide]

Originally Posted by Waldo62

Oh yeah, that was me all right. I wasn't gonna try to get out of cleats and straps on a dirt-rocky 12% grade, then walk in those shoes. Hell no! Next time, watch for me on my pearl baby blue Marastoni with SPD-compatible Look pedals.

You could go with toe clips, straps, and touring-style shoes. No one's forcing you to use cleats as well.

[truth]

The odds are pretty good you're looking for what is now called a mid-reach brake with nutted mount.

There are dual-pivot brakes available from Shimano, Tektro and TRP for recessed mount. Of these brakes, I've found Shimano to provide the best performance. Unfortunately these brakes are made for recessed mounting nuts. The good news is, you can install longer mounting bolts. As mentioned above, what you'd do is install the front brake, with the longer bolt, in the rear. And you'd replace the bolt in the rear brake with a longer bolt. Here are instructions.. It's also fairly trivially to drill out the holes on most frames and forks to accept a recessed mount as discussed by Sheldon Brown.

I've purchased a 'Jtek Tektro/shimano Pattern 70mm Dual Pivot Brake Bolt Nut Mount Conversion Bolt' but it's currently sold out from that seller.

Here's one from the UK.

You could also buy a cheap tektro caliper set up for nutted mounting and steal the bolt.

Here's one from Germany.

You could also buy a cheap tektro caliper set up for nutted mounting and steal the bolt.

You can buy a centerpull from Paul (the Racer M) with nutted mount but you'll need to then sort cable hangers for the front and rear.

[unterhausen]

I think you should go period correct and put some Mafac Competitions on there.

I have Mafac racers on a couple of bikes, and it's amazing how much power they have once you file the washers a little go get them toed in properly

[Pastashop]

Details needed: caliper reach required, current calipers, and levers being used.

I’ve gotten passable performance out of a traditional medium reach DuraAce calipers and non-aero levers, like Campy Triomphe / SR, but it’s better if aero style levers are used, albeit with some differences between manufacturers. Older Shimano 105 aero style brake lever improves the overall mechanical advantage, for example, and makes the older style single pivot calipers produce more braking force.

I’ve also used Shimano 600 “tri-color” series medium reach single pivot calipers with the corresponding non-aero levers and had *excellent* performance, on par with any modern dual pivot brakes, even with pads at the bottom of the slot.

On that last point, it may seem like voodoo, and it IS hit-and-miss, as manufacturers rarely provide info on the pull ratio of their brake system components, that I know of.

It’s plainly obvious to anyone familiar with basic principles of mechanics, and yet it took me years to realize that the practical implication of the lever rule is that the position of the pad in the slot is important, as it determines the mechanical advantage of the caliper. While you are working with a fixed distance from the brake bolt hole to the rim, choosing a “longer reach” caliper and putting the pads at the highest point in the slot will give you greater mechanical advantage than using shorter reach calipers with pads positioned at the bottom of the slot. That’s been my experience, anyway, I believe because the caliper upper arms are / should be generally designed with the idea of maintaining a workable mechanical advantage when the pads are at the bottom of the slot, maxing out the reach. So, Tektro’s 559 calipers that get you up to about 56/59 mm reach have longer upper arms than the 539 or other, shorter reach calipers, assuming they were designed to work with the same handlebar levers. (I may need to be corrected on this, pending exact re-measurement tonight or tomorrow, as I’m going from memory.)

[choke]

Originally Posted by cgolvin

The best improvement I've found is to mount newer brake shoes and pads on the old calipers -- that allows for more pad area on the rim and newer brake pad material. But since there is variation in the length of these shoes and the size of the mounting hardware, not all newer shoes will work. I believe I was able to mount shoes from Chorus 11 silver calipers while some older Centaur shoes didn't work, but please don't take my word for it -- other more knowledgeable members might be able to specify exactly which shoes to search out .

I agree with you regarding the new pads and holders. However, I have found that the newer Campy holders have a bolt diameter that is too large for vintage brakes, other than Deltas. Shimano style holders will work with vintage brakes - the bolt is a tiny bit smaller than perfect but in practice it works fine. I am currently using Shimano style holders on NR, Zeus and Universal brakes with no problems.

For the OP, I know that you said you are using newer pads but the Shimano style holders have a pad that is longer and thinner (height) than the old holders. I do feel that the extra length makes a difference. I also prefer SwissStop pads over Koolstop.

Some people have recommended mid-reach brakes. Unless your bike currently has mid-reach on it, they will be too long. I would be very surprised if it does have mid-reach brakes.

[rustychisel]

So in conclusion, folks...

[Waldo62]

Thank you for the suggestion. I’m perfectly happy with my set-up.

Originally Posted by mhespenheide

You could go with toe clips, straps, and touring-style shoes. No one's forcing you to use cleats as well.

[oldpotatoe]

Even if you have non recessed brake frame and fork, you can use modern dual pivot brakes on that bike. Use the front brake caliper on the rear(long brake 'bolt') and use the rear on the front with a LONG brake nut..Just need to enlarge the rear hole on the fork to accept the recessed brake nut..I've done this many times..

Just make sure you turn the brake pads/holders around.

[Tim Porter]

When I did L'Eroica in Gaiole in 2012, I was more interested in a good, safe ride than in slavishly using my original brakes on my '84 Sachs (built by Richard for me over the winter of '83). I did use the clips and straps, the DT shifters, etc., just for the record. I found a set of Campy Chorus brakes that were current at the time and it worked great. From any distance at all you would be hard pressed to tell the difference and the brakes fit and worked perfectly. Maybe troll around for a set on the web somewhere?

[IMG][/IMG]

[El Chaba]

Originally Posted by unterhausen

I think you should go period correct and put some Mafac Competitions on there.

I have Mafac racers on a couple of bikes, and it's amazing how much power they have once you file the washers a little go get them toed in properly

I am a huge Mafac fan. I can only add that by now any original brake pads have hardened and replacing them with Koolstop replacements would be a good idea. I greatly prefer the black version unless lots of rainy riding is anticipated in which case the salmon colored would be preferred.