Originally Posted by cerewa

Re: post 1......Stacey- to me it looks kind of borderline. It's hard to get a clear idea of how much metal will be left around your hole if you drill one for a caliper brake. Also, the steel you're working with there looks slightly rusted. My sweetie's old department store bike was set up so that under heavy braking, the rear brake pads basically run into the seatstay tubes. (as would happen if you used a flexible caliper and mounted it below rather than above the U-shaped bar.) This takes stress off of the mounting point. next to the pads there were these metal L-shaped things that were clearly put there to keep the brake pads from fitting themselves between the seatstays and the rim, instead keeping them securely behind the seatstays and allowing them to spring outward when the brakes were released.