Conventional wisdom back in the bike boom days was that center pull brakes had greater mechanical advantage than side pulls and thus stopped better.
Large flange quick release hubs and center pull brakes were an indicator of quality on lower priced European bikes during the boom!
Until Campagnolo brought out their side pull brakes in 1969, the European pro peloton used mostly MAFAC center pull brakes with some teams running Universal Mod. 61 center pulls or Mod. 68 side pulls. Campagnolo was hard pressed to produce their new brakes and it wasn't until at least late 1970 before all the pro teams had them.
Peter Rich owner of Velo-Sport in Berkeley, CA told me he bought 100 sets of Campy brakes in 1969. He received 50 sets but didn't get the other 50 until a year later. They were all unmarked - no Campagnolo logos on the calipers.
During the early 70's, "10 speed racing bike" was the phrase that drove the bike boom fad. A large majority of those bikes were bought by or for high school and college students. Bikes were still considered kid's toys by many Americans. Very few people in this country knew anything about bicycle racing or how big a sport it was in Europe.
Derailleur, Peugeot, Motobecane, Gitane, Frejus, Legnano, Colnago and so on were strange foreign words... Campagnolo??? What was that?
After the bike boom in 1974-76 mid price range performance bikes became more popular. Those bikes started coming with side pull brakes - center pulls were only for lower priced bikes!
By the late 70's side pull brakes were far more common than center pulls.
It came down to Andre Agassi's comment in the Canon Camera ads: "Image Is Everything"!
I have ~18 bikes with center pull brakes because they are period correct - mostly MAFAC but I have Universal 61's on several of my early 70's Motobecanes.
Except for occasional screeches from the MAFACs, when I'm riding I don't even think about what brakes are on the bike, just that they stop.
verktyg
Chas.
The best stopping brakes I've ever used... These are a set of prototype Bonntrager Speed Limit Brakes I was given to evaluate. The final products had some minor improvements.