Bicycle Mechanics - Is it possible to convert old sidepulls to centerpulls?

EZ question. I think. The reach on older bike sidepulls look to be about the same as centerpulls. I'm thinking all I need are front and rear cable hangers. Si? No?

If the reach is good, then I would say yes. As with any brakes, you may have to do some tweaking with the nuts & bolts to make them work with your fork crown & rear brake bridge.

triplebutted, I say yes as I went the other way to make room for a headlight.

Brad

I take it you're talking about centerpulls such as the old Weinmann/Dia Compe's. If so, yes, they mount in the same holes as the old nutted sidepull calipers. As for reach, it varies. Not all old sidepulls have the same reach, not all old centerpulls have the same reach. Just make sure you get centerpulls that have the reach you need; you may even need one brake with a certain reach for the front and another brake with a different reach for the back. You will also need a cable stop setup for the front and back; the front stop can usually double as a spacer on the headset stack, the rear can be installed with the seatpost binder. But you need a stop so that you can run bare cable down to the straddle cable.

EZ question. I think. The reach on older bike sidepulls look to be about the same as centerpulls. I'm thinking all I need are front and rear cable hangers. Si? No?

So it's about converting the bike from sidepulls to centerpulls - not about modifying the brakes?

In that case you're spot on.

you may even need one brake with a certain reach for the front and another brake with a different reach for the back.

That's a good tip.

Only possible snags i can think of (other than reach, which has been well covered above) is that the housing stops you will need may be difficult to attach. If your seat binder is a conventional nut-and-bolt behind the seat tube, you should be OK. If it is anything else (brazed on tube with concealed bolt, e.g.), you may need to get creative. Likewise, if you have a threaded fork, the front housing stop that goes above the upper headset cup below the lock nut on the fork will need enough steering tube above the cup. If there's a washer between the headset lock nut and upper cup, you can leave it out & install the housing stop, which will act like a washer. If there is no washer, make sure the steering tube is long enough for the lock nut to engage enough threads to tighten down.

So it's about converting the bike from sidepulls to centerpulls - not about modifying the brakes?

In that case you're spot on.

Yeah, my head was spinning till I realised that

Me too. I guess anything is possible though if you are handy and have a mill It might take more than one donor brake to get all the parts you need, It might take quite a bit of cutting and reshaping of parts. Didn't some of the klunker guys do this sort of thing when they made cantilevers out of bits and pieces of other brakes?

But just swapping out centerpulls for old side-pulls? Easy-peasy in comparison!