Finished the '73 roadster today. I can say with certainty now, since I've tried both, that the Kool Stop salmon inserts are, hands down, more aggressive stoppers than the Fibrax pads. Besides the usual setup steps of getting the pads to land on the correct place on the rim and evenly, I had to bend the levers down a bit to get maximum leverage. I've found that you need a distance of about 3" from the lever ends to the grip. These were a good 1/2" short. I mounted the front pads trailing the stirrup this time and can't say I notice any difference between this and my other roadster with leading mounted pads. I had no trouble at all with this 73 AW hub. I replaced all the bearings and gave it some new marine grease. Shifts smoothly. I did remove the plastic BB bearing cages and used loose balls instead. This is more of a hunch that science. Just seems to me that 22 bearings would be better than 14. I didn't replace the broken shifter and cable pulley with period correct parts. What can I say? I just don't like them. I used late 50s SA parts. Now that's it's geared down and has brakes that work, I really enjoy riding this bike. That's thanks to all the people here at BF that gave me so much valuable info.
73DL1a by
Billy Bones, on Flickr