Originally Posted by
musemj6
Thank you everyone for your ideas. FBinNY: my original idea was to just cross the frame, as the housing doesn't look like it'd be too drastic a curve, but I just saw your second proposal on sheldonbrown.com/calipers. I think I may give mounting the brakes in front of the seat stays a try, it looks like (eyeballing) there shouldn't be any conflict, and I won't need to add any hardware to my bike. Thanks again.
Matthew
The only issue is the bridge. Some are simply round and use curved washers for the brake and nut, and it's easy to flip everything. Others have symmetrical flat faces in the center and, again, no issue flipping. But many have a large face to the rear for the brake, and a smaller face in front for the nut.
Mounting the brake reversed can be tricky since there's not enough surface up front to properly stabilize the brake center bolt and keep it from rotating over time. For these you have to be a bit creative, and adapt to what you have. If there's some area to work with punch a hole in adhesive sandpaper and glue a small washer of it to the back of the bolt, so it'll bite into and hold on the limited area there.
If there's not even enough surface for that, use a strong grade of locktite, or super glue to hold a washer stable against the frame. That will allow you to move the brake and center it, but still hold to the glued washer. Hint- oil the center bolt make a sandwich of the parts, assemble loosely, then add the glue between the washer and frame and tighten the bolt to hold it until it cures. Then you can loosen the nut and center the brake. The oil on the bolt will keep it from getting glued also.