Classic and Vintage Bicycles: What's it Worth? Appraisals and Inquiries - Help ID Shimano calipers?

Got these in a trade and I'm not exactly sure which model they are, sorry for the slightly blurry pic.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y171/FORDSVTPARTS/Bikes/P1030639.jpg

i believe those are dura ace 7900

Look more like Sora to me. There will be a model number on the back side.

Thanks, I'll see if I can find the number.

Edit BR-R650 is what it says, from browsing E-bay it looks like there's no model name for these, just the number.

BR-R650 is a "non-series" component according to Shimano. I believe this would put it below Sora, but don't worry. Even if they're not worth much they'll still function better than pretty much every caliper brake made before dual pivot came along.

http://techdocs.shimano.com/techdocs/blevel.jsp?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302051118&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=1408474395181679&bmUID=1258576533621


i believe those are dura ace 7900

Dura Ace stuff says "Dura Ace" on it in almost all cases. If it didn't what would be the point of paying the huge premium?

I believe they came as OEM parts on a bike the kid I traded with had so they've never been used, I'm not terribly concerned with value I was just wondering what they were.

Odds are they'll be going on my bike when I build it back up after paint.

BR-R650 is a "non-series" component according to Shimano. I believe this would put it below Sora, but don't worry. Even if they're not worth much they'll still function better than pretty much every caliper brake made before dual pivot came along.

Not necessarily. Typically R6xx series are Ultegra/105 quality. For instance, Shimano made compact R600 and R700 cranks before they became available on Ultegra and Dura-Ace. Also, R600 STI shifters for smaller hands were Ultegra level.

I've used several grades of Shimano dual pivots: Sora, Ultegra, RX100, Shimano 105, DA. I've liked all of them.

I got these on my Dawes Sportif Ultra Ti, with the rest of the groupset being full Ultegra. As a 6*** branded part, it would suggest that it is around Ultegra level, if not the same. The guy in the shop said that Shimano have been doing this since 600 series turned into Ultegra and that as far as they could tell they weighed the same and delivered comparable performance. I thought at first that as mine are long-throw (to get around my mudguards), they may have unbranded them to disassociate them from the racier (and probably better-performing, due to the reduction in leverage) low-clearance models, but yours appear to be short-throw from the images. Perhaps it is a licensing matter?

For what it's worth, they are significantly better than my Sora brakes were, though of course they have different pads and rims to contend with.

Tangentially, the R600 cranks are Tiagra-level arms (solid channel-shaped arms, thick-walled spindle) with a nicer set of rings. The R700 cranks are Ultegra 6600-level arms (hollow-forged, and thin-walled spindle too IIRC). Shimano subsequently released Ultegra-badged compacts, so the R600/700 series are lame ducks at this point.