Originally Posted by
Salamandrine
FWIW there are lots of mismatched front and rear Weinmann brakesets on ebay, mostly pulled from old Schwinns I suppose. As long as you like Weinmann center pulls you're golden... I never quite got the logic of the long reach brake in back either. It must have made sense in the 70s. A lot of other bikes besides Schwinn did it too.
Back OT - many bikes from the transitional period of 27"-->700c could accommodate either size. It's only 4mm different after all. I went back and forth several times when I had an '83 UV Specialissima. It took nothing more than a 5 minute brake pad adjustment.
One reason to go longer reach in back is it makes the rear brake less effective and therefor lass likely to lock the rear wheel in a hard stop. (Campagnolo got the same effect in their early dual pivot brake sets, using an older sidepull design in back to reduce power. I don't like going to more "sponge" iin back. In my winter/rain/city bikes I run the powerful but mushy Mafac Racer in front and much stiffer but less powerful Weimann in back.)
My Peter Mooney was built with the canti bosses located 1/2 way between 27" and 700c. I have only ised 700c on the bike because when it was delivered I was iving on the west coast and 700c was easy to get. (When I ordered the frame, I was looking at perhaps living and working in back county Maine, 1979. I was thinking 27" might be the only choice.)
Ben