Originally Posted by
fuji86
...I had to loosen the cable, squeeze the side pull calipers with the brake pads to the rim and then tighten the cable. By doing this, there's constant tension on the spring and the cable as if the brakes were constantly being applied, but without the drag on the rim...
...what is this going to do to the brake cables and hardware mounted to the frame ? I'm thinking the spring being under that constant load and tension will eventually compress to be applicable to the narrower rims. Either that or the cable will stretch and eventually may snap ?
Yep, that sounds like the process to adjust a brake caliper for a rim of different width. It's a little easier with a
third hand tool that'll set the caliper where you want it. Regardless of the rim's width, there's
always going to be spring tension on a properly-adjusted brake cable. Tension from the caliper spring is what retracts the pads from the rim and gets the brake lever to reset to its resting position.
Originally Posted by
fuji86
There is sufficient travel to brake the wheels with sufficient stopping power and the levers are engaging the brake pads to the rim almost immediately when the levers are squeezed/applied.
Sounds like you might have the brake pads positioned a little too close to the rim. You can adjust that via the barrel adjusters on your brake calipers and/or levers. If you don't have enough range on the barrel adjuster, you'll need to reposition the cable as you described above.
Depending on what kind of brakes you have, Park Tool probably has a tutorial to set them up:
Single Pivot Sidepull Brake Service
Dual Pivot Sidepull Brake Service
Sheldon Brown has a page on setting up caliper brakes, too:
Installing and Adjusting Caliper Brakes
Originally Posted by
fuji86
Otherwise I think I need to find side pull calipers that are made to engage a 1 inch wide rim ?
Calipers are designed to work with a WIDE range of rim widths. One size fits all, basically.
Originally Posted by
fuji86
From what I can see on-line, the Dia Compe's I have are a 45-55 mm travel and I'm also wondering if just replacing the calipers with 700c modern brake calipers makes more sense or is even compatible ?
When looking at specs for brake calipers, you'll see reach, not travel. Reach is the distance from the brake's mounting bolt to the rim's brake track, as shown on Sheldon Brown's site
HERE. It has absolutely nothing to do with rim width or how wide the caliper will open.
There's no such thing as a "700c caliper". The same calipers will work for 700c, 27", 26", 650b, or whatever wheel size you want to run, in whatever width ...so long as the caliper's reach matches the distance between the brake's mounting hole and the rim.