Old 04-22-08 | 01:17 PM
  #4  
pgoat's Avatar
pgoat
Batüwü Griekgriek
Sheldon Brown Memorial - Donating
20 Anniversary
 
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 2,927
Likes: 7

Bikes: 1986 Trek 500 Tri Series, 2005 Cannondale R1000

Originally Posted by well biked
There's no reason you can't get excellent braking performance from centerpulls. Kool Stop salmon pads and aero brake levers are the key things that will improve the performance of your braking. I have an '83 Schwinn I ride nearly everyday that's equipped with its original centerpull brakes, and with Kool Stops and aero brake levers it has very, very good brakes.

Centerpulls are nutted brakes, meaning they don't use the recessed nut that modern brakes do, so you'll need to drill the rear of your fork out if you want to use a brake with a recessed nut. As far as the reach question, you just have to measure your required reach and see what you need. There are modern sidepull brakes that will work, but they will likely have to be of the "long reach" variety, because brake reach on older road bikes such as your Fuji require longer reach brakes than typical modern road calipers.
You probably are better off keeping the centerpulls - maybe clean them off, get new kool stop pads and new cables.

If they were old school sidepulls, I'd say go for the switch.

Nashbar sells cheap long reach dual pivot side pulls. I put one on my mid 80s trek road bike (replaced a very flimsy lower end Shimano single pivot sidepull). I could only use the front, as my frame was not easily drilled for the recessed nut of the rear caliper. Feel free to PM if you want that rear caliper.
__________________
Originally Posted by jsharr
People whose sig line does not include a jsharr quote annoy me.
pgoat is offline  
Reply