speaking of modern era frames, what about medium reach brakes?

[eddief]

Have there always been 47-57 calipers available or was there a turning point when someone said "we need these so we can run bigger tires?"

[deluz]

I have some old Dia Compe single pivot brakes that I used on a vintage steel frame that have that reach. So no, they have been around for a long time.

[Xrslug]

They have been around for a long time but pretty much disappeared on production frames. Around 2003, Rivendell came out with the Romulus and Rambouillet, which were spec’d with Shimano mid-reach brakes with pads set to the bottom of the slots and had a ton of tire clearance. Easily fit 38mm tires. I’m not aware of any production frames in the 90s up to the appearance of these Rivendell frames in 2003 that used mid-reach brakes, but maybe someone else is. And then slowly after that, more frames started showing up with these brakes, although it seems like the rise of disc brakes kinda killed that minor resurgence.

[eddief]

appears to have been specced with mid reachers:

https://archive.trekbikes.com/us/en/...ilot50/details

[jamesdak]

Yep, the Suntour Superbe calipers on my Team USA bike first came out in 1979. 47-57mm range.

[El Chaba]

For sidepulls, brake reach in the 47-57 range was standard until the early 80s when short reach brakes in the 39-49 range came into vogue. As with most things in cycling, there are no real standards so you have to measure.

[mhespenheide]

There have been 47-57mm reach calipers since at least the 1960's, and I'm confident they were around before that. They were the standard for decades, including the era of centerpull brakes from the likes of Mafac and Universal.

Then Campagnolo popularized "short-reach" brakes which were stiffer and had a range of about 37-47mm. They had enough tire clearance for racers, (especially since roads in Europe were better paved and they weren't racing on unpaved gravel roads and goat tracks over the Alps), so they became widely adopted in the mid- to late-70's.

By the 2000's, what were formerly called "short reach" had been so prevalent that pretty much nobody thought about anything else for road bikes. "Medium reach" brakes were around that whole time, but only on the very margins. During that time, basically any road-ish bikes designed for more tire clearance used cantilever brakes. Like touring bikes and cyclocross bikes.

So now we have "medium reach brakes", which really ought to be called "standard reach brakes". But they're not, because for a few decades racers drove the narrative and "short reach" brakes became the de facto standard.

[Mark McM]

^^^^^^ This.

Ever since the Michelin brothers invented the clincher tires, most bikes on the roads have used clincher tires. And before the late '70s, clincher rims didn't have hooks, which limited clincher tires to a minimum of about 32mm (or maybe 28mm). So "medium reach" brakes were the norm, found on most bikes with caliper rim brakes. And indeed they were normally referred to as "standard reach" brakes, because that was the standard for decades.

The idea that bikes with tires wider than 28mm have to have disc brakes is a bit of farce, as bikes with wider tires and rim brakes were the norm for decades. Maybe disc brakes have some advantages to rim brakes with wider tires, but people rode many miles with wide tires and rim brakes.

[eddief]

I did not activate my addiction until the year 2000 so little appreciation of what came before.