Bicycle Mechanics - location of brake pad for best brake strength

So brakes have a range of areas where they can be placed in order to properly contact your rims.

However i have to make drop bolts for my bike so i was thinking that the best placement would be at the top of the brake pad travel. This would result in better mechanical advantage for my hand pressure agaisnt the rim.. correct?

If the pad was the furthest on the travel it would have the larger advantage but that would counter act my hand force... i think.

It's a preference thing.

It all depends on your braking technique. Like to pull a little before contact? Make the stroke long. Like to brake deeper? Make the contact point quick to grab with some room for additional pressure according to your hand strength.

There are so many nuances to consider and I wish more cyclists would take the braking aspect of tuning under their own control. All I can do is guess and shoot for a happy medium.

Yes, the best position for the shoe is at the top of the slot, effectively making the caliper shorter. Not only do you get more leverage, but also more caliper rigidity. Just don't get carried away, you want to leave enough room under the top of the caliper for a larger section tire in case you ever want to use one.

What little (if any) advantage you might gain by moving pads to the top of its adjustment slot, will be overshadowed by the loss of braking ability IF you do not adjust so that the full surface of the pad contacts the rim 'squarely'. I adjust mine to where there is 1-2mm between the edge of the rim and the top edge of the pad, and toe them right, and have had no issues with loss of braking ability, or needing excessive hand force.

What little (if any) advantage you might gain by moving pads to the top of its adjustment slot, will be overshadowed by the loss of braking ability IF you do not adjust so that the full surface of the pad contacts the rim 'squarely'. I adjust mine to where there is 1-2mm between the edge of the rim and the top edge of the pad, and toe them right, and have had no issues with loss of braking ability, or needing excessive hand force.

Read the OP's post. He isn't talking about raising the brake shoe with respect to the rim, but leaving the shoe in the right place, and dropping the brake (or top of the slot) to the shoe. So whatever he gains has no offsetting drawbacks, except reduced brake travel and tighter tire clearance at the top of the arch.

Hire a custom frame, you have choices then.

Learn the mechanics of simple levers, its ancient science.

My new favorite rim brake , Magura Hydrostop.

2nd place Cantilevers with Scott pedersen SE mech in them.

Read the OP's post. He isn't talking about raising the brake shoe with respect to the rim, but leaving the shoe in the right place, and dropping the brake (or top of the slot) to the shoe. So whatever he gains has no offsetting drawbacks, except reduced brake travel and tighter tire clearance at the top of the arch.

Not having read all THREE of the OP's posts on drop bolts, I missed the point of this post in that regard. I WILL stand by my post as to how proper location of pads affect braking, though. I may not be the only one who reads this and thinks he is talking about pad placement, rather than caliper placement. I had not previously seen or read anything about drop bolts, and as others have stated, they seem redundant in the age of readily available long-reach brakes. JMHO

Ah. I was about to open a thread, but my question follows on here, if anyone makes it this far:

Long-reach brakes are only so readily available. I find only Dia-Compe and Tektro. They look okay.

Question: What is the best non-cantilever, long-reach brake?

#2: If not that one, what brake pair would use choose to use?

I'm looking at a vintage frame that needs reach for new shoes, but I'm open to answers unfiltered by my intent.

If you want to add #3, you could add the "best bang for the buck?" question, but I'd go with simple "best".

Thanks.

tektro makes the best long reach caliper brake. R737
tektro R559 is a slightly lower end model and R556 (previous generation) are also good.

with some koolstop salmon pads, they're really good at stopping a bike.

IMO, functionality wise, tektro makes better caliper and cantilever brakes compared to shimano, sram or campagnolo.

Hire a custom frame, you have choices then.

Learn the mechanics of simple levers, its ancient science.

My new favorite rim brake , Magura Hydrostop.

2nd place Cantilevers with Scott pedersen SE mech in them.
Self energizers are bike flippers. Plus, it is a complex mechanism. There's a good reason you don't see em any more.

tektro makes the best long reach caliper brake. R737
tektro R559 is a slightly lower end model and R556 (previous generation) are also good.

with some koolstop salmon pads, they're really good at stopping a bike.

IMO, functionality wise, tektro makes better caliper and cantilever brakes compared to shimano, sram or campagnolo.

I'm not sure I'd go that far, but the top of the line Tektro dual pivots certainly hold their own against the others. Price wise, they are the clear winner.
But in the long reach category, Tektro is the only game in town.

tektro makes the best long reach caliper brake. R737
tektro R559 is a slightly lower end model and R556 (previous generation) are also good.

with some koolstop salmon pads, they're really good at stopping a bike.

IMO, functionality wise, tektro makes better caliper and cantilever brakes compared to shimano, sram or campagnolo.

really? almost all of my experience with tektro has been with their oem offerings, but for real, what i've seen from tektro on various new bikeshop bikes in the past 5 years or so have been pretty yucky.

=P
-rob

Mechanically, Tektro is as good as anything out there. But their brake pads are like bricks, pick up all imaginable junk on the road, and make a decent brake perform like crap. It is kind of a shame.

I have a friend that runs a bike shop, and buys another brand brake pad in bulk so when new bikes come in with Tektro pads he tosses them. He got tired of customers coming back complaining in 2 weeks that the brakes are grinding the rims due to embedded road crud. He usually does this on bikes he can afford the extra margin on. On the cheapest bikes he up sells them as an add-on.

I'm not sure I'd go that far, but the top of the line Tektro dual pivots certainly hold their own against the others. Price wise, they are the clear winner.
But in the long reach category, Tektro is the only game in town.

their latest offering is actually well thought out.
the long reach calipers have a QR that opens up extra wide so you can use a fat tire, like a 35mm, without having to deflate it first.

Something shimano, sram and campagnolo all don't offer, not that they need to.
tektro CR-720 is much better than shimano BR-550 or Avid shorty cantilevers. No plastic ring to break and the yoke straddle is well designed.

really? almost all of my experience with tektro has been with their oem offerings, but for real, what i've seen from tektro on various new bikeshop bikes in the past 5 years or so have been pretty yucky.

=P
-rob

I mean their recent offerings that have the tektro branding.
pads should be replaced for some koolstop salmon or similar.

The R737 seems to be unavailable. It's on their website, but nowhere else.

The tektro site shows it only in black. Was it ever available in silver? Is it available anywhere?

Thanks.

try for the R556 or R559 then

R736 is a 'medium' and does not have the same reach as the R737.

I'm going from a 27" frame to 650B. I NEED the reach.

If I didn't know the R737 existed, I'd probably be happy with the R556.

Drats!

Lust is a renewable energy!

In fact, going thru the Tektro site, I see that the R556 has been discontinued and is replaced with the R559, which has a far better QR allowing for easier use of fat tires. Of course, no one seems to have it in the US, yet...

Gotta wait for that now.

sigh.

Paul's center pull brakes... racers .. need a brake hanger for the housing..

made in USA so 'race to the bottom' prices don't apply.

Very Nice looking, but the "long" reach is a mere 67m.

I think I need a full 72 or the max 73 of the Tektro. Unclear when the new version with the better release, the R559, will become available.

Thanks, tho.

Just to conclude, it appears these R559 calipers are rolling in.

Velo-Orange just included them on their web site, so they are arriving.

Cheers.

I just did an ebay search for "tektro long reach brake", and got these: 538/47-57mm, 556/55-73mm, 800A/61-78mm. I used a pair of the 556 to go from 27" frame to 700c wheels, and they worked well. I also used an 800A on a 700c fork I installed on a 650c frame to raise the front end. It worked well enough to slow me down from 52mph coming downhill in Death Valley! And yes, I also use Kool Stop salmon pads--I got tired of cleaning the detritus off my rims that Shimano pads deposited, and after looking at the 'bricks' that came on the Tektro's, did not hesitate to replace them.