brake upgrade
 

Hey Fellas!

I'm wanting to change out the speedy modelo brakes on my old (1986) cannondale touring bike. According to a bike guru I know, newish brakes won't work in my frame and fork due to the style of mounting. I'm just a tad curious as to what change in brake mounting for calipers and what I should look for on the net.

Thanks!

-Aaron

They'll work but you need to drill out the back of the fork to 8mm or 5/16 inch to fit the tubular nut. On the rear you'll need to either use another front caliper turned around or go with one of the options for drilling out the hole in the "back" of the brake stay to allow the sleeve nut to fit.

You're also going to find that you need longer reach calipers than is currently standard for race bikes. Fourtunetly Tektro makes a few different models of longer reach calipers and one will fit your needs. And if you're lucky they actually sell them with long brake mount bolts these days just for retrofitting to old bikes like ours.

Most new caliper brakes mount using a recessed nut and have a shorter mounting bolt than former designs that had long bolts and were fastened with an external nut. Also most newer bikes use "short reach" (37 -47 mm) calipers.

However "long reach" (47 -57 mm) caliper brakes are still offered by Tektro and Shimano and Tektro even makes calipers with reaches up to 73 mm but you are unlikely to need them.

You can get around the mounting problem one of several ways.

1. Drill out the rear face of the fork crown and the front of the rear brake bridge with a 5/16" drill bit and that will let you use the new recessed mounting nuts. Drilling the fork crown is easy, the brake bridge is not since you can't get a drill motor between the bridge and the seattube and you can't just drill through both sides from in back.

2. Buy two front brakes and drill the fork crown for recessed mounting of the front and use the other front (it has a longer bolt than a matching rear) as a standard nutted rear.

3. Use the rear brake in front and fasten it with a nut inside the fork crown and use the front in back as above.


Important Note: If you use a front brake in back or a rear brake in front, be certain to orient the brake pad holders so the closed ends are all forward.

EDIT: BCRider pointed out something I neglected to mention and that is Tektro does sell calipers with the older style long mounting bolts. That makes mounting pretty straight forward once you have the correct "reach".

Modern calipers have recessed bolts requiring drilling out the fork and brake bridge to install. Have you tried new brake pads? You may be able to get acceptable performance with a good set of pads on your existing calipers.

I thought about buying some kool-stops or swiss-stops as I know both are great brake pads but the biggest thing that I hate about my brakes is that they're single pivot, making it very very difficult to center. Are you sure Tektro's have the old style mounting bolts or just the long reach brakes? I didn't realize that I needed long reaches. Does that have to do with where the brakes are mounted?

The reach is the distance from the anchor bolt to the brake pads and doesn't effect how the brakes are mounted. There may be calipers available with the older bolt-through mounting system.

Speedys are a basic side pull single pivot brake , tektro offers all sorts of dual pivot side pulls .

bring the bike by your local bike shop and they will help you select the right brake.

or pick up a set of Kool stop , brake pads , if you spend a bit more
you can get replaceable insert shoes

though the Kool Stop Continental is a good brake shoe, molded in one piece.

Once the brakes are tight and reasonably centered, use a flat blade screwdriver and small hammer to gently tap the spring behind the caliper arm. It should move a bit until centered.

Tektro makes some nice dual-pivot nutted brakes too

There are; tektro make a number. But every local bike store I've asked about them denies their existence, even when told part numbers. I suspect this is mix of "not obvious (or available) in the QBP catalog" and "damn customers can't know more than we do". Thankfully, there are internet retailers who happily sell them.

I have access to the whole QBP online catalog, and sometimes the tektros are pretty confusing. If anyone knows which part number it is that'd be awesome.

are there any I should be checking on in ebay? Like older style dual pivot with the non-recessed nut.