Originally Posted by
plodderslusk
Weinmann 405 and 605 are horrible brakes. How they could go from making their really quite good centerpulls (and probably equally cheap) to these disasters is beyond my understanding.
+1,000.
That said, nobody has put in the good word yet for Shimano 105 SLR's from about '87. I have this vague memory that Sheldon Brown calls them some of the best sidepulls ever made, and I tend to agree .... I've got '70's Nuovo Record, '82 Dura Ace, and non-SLR Shimano 600 to compare them to, and those 105's are just great brakes. Easy to adjust, work when wet and filthy, never fail. In fact, the entire 105 gruppo from 1987 is kind of like the AK-47 of road groups from that era. Simple, a good value, idiot proof, and always gets the job done.