I didn't even know that Shimano got to 6207! I wonder if there was an incremental step change all the way in between; I'd only heard of 6200 and 6201, both SLR's before your letter.
Thanks for posting your experience and while it doesn't agree with mine, it is obviously a valid and carefully derived result.
Given what you describe, does it bode well for the Campy stuff that it requires
that level of tuning to turn out a convincing performance? What cables do you use? All the brakes I tested had new metal ferrule ends on all cable junctions ($5 for a bottle of hundreds at Nashbar and worth every penny in terms of performance). I'm a touch excited to get the Campy SR's working better as I have them on at least 5 bikes (I really love the classic Italian stuff but don't ride those everyday because I like to keep them clean and pretty).
Thanks,
Danny
Originally Posted by
Road Fan
I want to echo the Bravo, because I agree this is a very difficult comparison to make, and you've taken a very even-handed shot at doing this. Hats off to you, and kudos!
But I've worked intensively with 2 single-pivot brake systems in the past few years, my Shimano 600 6207-series (2 sets) and the famous Campy NR/SR systems (also 2 sets). After carefully rebuilding the calipers with new lubes, new RIGID cable sets with lined housings, fully dressed and ferruled housing ends, and relatively new original pads on each, I still think my 6207s require a lot more hand force both to stop and to modulate. I find the classic Campy's to work better in both respects. Perhaps after years of riding Weinman centerpulls and sidepulls I've build strong hands and trained my self to expect a hard squeeze, but I still think the 6207s are poor, well below the Campys. I've never owned a set of modern dual-pivots, so maybe my prejudices are not properly trained by the modern.
I think that both my sets of calipers had properly set pivot bolts, with no visible or feelable caliper play, when I clamp the brake and flex the fork by pushing the bike. The bikes were different, but both have pretty stiff forks. My Campy installations (on a Masi) use Campy levers and the Shimano (on a Trek 610) started with its original levers, then were changed to Modolo levers to interface properly with the Modolo housings and cables I switched to. Both calipers are medium length, with nutted mounts. But I found similar impressions with short calipers on a pair of different bikes. I replaced the Campy pads with Campy pads after all the fine-tuning, and that did not change teh brake's behavior.
On both bikes I use vintage anodized rims: MA40s on the Trek and Wolber tubular rims from circa 1980 on the Masi.
I made a big improvement in the Shimano with all the fine-tunign, and IMO made them acceptable. But I think they are still below the Campys.
??
Road Fan
I do not mean to be the apologist for Campy or the naysayer, just trying to describe my experiment and my assessment of the results.
I think my results are valid, and that Danny's results are valid. But what's different? I wish I knew!
Is it the cables? Too bad if so, it's one heck of a lot of work to "blueprint" the cables on every brake set.