What are modern side-pull brakes like?

xerxes

Old School Grand Master
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I haven't ridden a bike with side-pull brakes for 20 odd years when I had a set of truly awful Weinmann 500 brakes, which were and absolute pain to set so they sprung evenly either side of the rim without rubbing and would bring you not so safely to halt at a very leisurely pace, usually in about 1 calendar month.

If what I have in mind ever comes to anything, I'll need some fairly long drop callipers, maybe something like this: http://www.fixedgearfrenzy.com/tektro-r ... black.html. Are these going to be any better than the stuff from yesteryear?
 
I shall be watching this post with great interest, I have centrepull brakes on my 1985 bike and they require very little setting up and once they are done require no tweaking.
 
The ones your interested in are infinitely better than old school side pulls as they are dual pivot as opposed to old school single pivot. Dual pivot are in my opinion as good as well set up cantilever brakes. You can however get just as good dual pivot brakes from a host of Taiwanese companies for considerably less that £55. Companies such as Alhonga, Acor and Teckto's cheaper options.
 
The Campag dual pivits on my modern Basso work well..................quite a bit better than my weinmann 500's from yesteryear. Mind you the 500's were never meant for braking LOL

Shaun
 
Midlife":296lgi1v said:
Mind you the 500's were never meant for braking LOL

Shaun

Wonderful! So the 500's I recently bought for my long term 70's clubman's racer project are basically going to scare the living whatnot's out of me on each and every ride, as I live near the top of a hill. :shock:
 
NeilM":2kx914xu said:
Midlife":2kx914xu said:
Mind you the 500's were never meant for braking LOL

Shaun

Wonderful! So the 500's I recently bought for my long term 70's clubman's racer project are basically going to scare the living whatnot's out of me on each and every ride, as I live near the top of a hill. :shock:

Your ride home up the hill shouldn't present you with any dramas what so ever.
 
For those wondering what you mean by 'side pull':

'Side-pull'

DBX260.jpg


'Single Pivot'

caliper-600.gif


'Dual pivot'

shimano-r450-dual-pivot-brake-calliper-57mm-drop.jpg


Weinmanns were just terrible but thats what most of us only had access to...

file.php


cheapeis:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tektro-R539-L ... 4856a99b2b

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Miche-Perform ... 43b9aae774

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Miche-Perform ... 5654c7730d



You will want 'long drop dual pivot'
 
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Wonderful! So the 500's I recently bought for my long term 70's clubman's racer project are basically going to scare the living whatnot's out of me on each and every ride, as I live near the top of a hill.

Wienmann 500s are perfectly capable of locking the wheels.








Provided that the road surface is perfectly frictionless, or you have the bicycle in the work stand. :D

To be honest, they're not completely useless, they are light and road legal, which is why they graced so many time trial bikes back in the 80s, where stopping wasn't a huge priority. And who knows, with decent, modern brake blocks they might be better than I remember.

I was only a teenager, with a very limited number of tools, so perhaps I'd make a better job of it now, but I found them a pain to centre at the time, and I recall faffing about with them a fair bit to get them to not rub on the rims. Maybe my memory of them is worse than the reality; I've also since been spoiled by the awesome stopping power and hassle free set-up of Vs and discs.
 
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