Originally Posted by
Retro Grouch
Might be. I have a way of remembering things from decades ago as having happened only year or two back.
On the other hand, I've got extensive experience working with "bread and butter" bikes. Before dual pivot brakes, keeping the brakes centered was a constant PITA. Brake pad replacements were more frequently necessary because one side always wore out way before the other. Now it never even blips the radar. I'm sticking with dual pivots for my personal bikes.
I'm confused, I have a feeling your an impostor or you had cheap side pulls. Almost all of my road bikes are side pull brakes from the 80's, only one bike has dual pivot, one has cantilever. One of my bikes with the Superbe side pulls has over 160,000 miles on it and those pads do not wear out faster on one side, and neither do the other pads on the other sidepulls I have on my other bikes. And the brake pads I've been using for the Superbe has been the orange (salmon) Suntour Superbe pads of which I have several sets in stock; those pads last a very long time, in fact their out lasting the stock Campy pads that came on the dual pivots on my 07 Mercian and the Suntour pads have easily 7 times the mileage with no signs of wearing out!
And for the others, the side pulls rarely have to be re-centered, but neither do the dual pivots, the cantilevers for some reason seem to go out of adjustment more frequently. But those Cantilevers have the original Dia Comp pads and they seem to last a long time too, and those pads on some weekends carry an additional roughly 30 pounds of weight.
Mathauser use to make a really nice solid orange (salmon) rubber pad that also lasted a very long time, in fact the Suntour's are similar in looks which makes me wonder if their actually made by Mathauser.