period3

Are the new ultegra brakes (6700) compatible with the new 105 levers (5700)? I've read conflicting information from several sources, including shimano. (Ultegra brake caliper manual says they should be used with 6700 or dura ace levers, whereas description for 5700 sti levers says they are compatible with ultegra "brake arches").

fietsbob

Have a drink and stop worrying .. so much..

period3

Well I have no brakes at the moment, so I guess that means I don't worry too much. I was just thinking it would be fun to be able to stop, so I was going to order a pair of brakes that would hopefully work with my 105 levers.

Pepper Grinder

Yes. Absolutely compatible.

Roadie607

For future reference, brake to lever compatibility is hardly ever an issue. It's shifter to derailleur that is usually an issue due to different cable pull ratios.

fietsbob

the 105 brakes will be fine and leave money in your pocket to pay the bills for heat and light.

FastJake

Don't worry about it. In reality, any non-V-brake lever is compatible with any caliper or traditional cantilever brake.

The only time you can get into trouble is when you start throwing in V-brakes or discs.

flashpoint145

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Traditional road brakes are compatible with ALMOST any shifter. You will have no problem mixing major brands: shimano, fsa, bontrager, etc.

AlphaDogg

I quoted these posts for misinformation. 5700, 6700, and 7900 have altered brake cable pull. They are the same, so you can indeed mix and match brifters and calipers between 5700, 6700, and 7900. Mixing and matching with other brands will result in less than optimal braking, but it will work. I'm using Fuji brand Oval brakes with my 5700 levers and it's fine (though it's not fantastic)

well biked

Yes, and btw that's what the dashed line on the excellent chart above is about. It's showing that you can use, for example, the Shimano levers with the new cable pull ratio (5700, 6700, etc) with Shimano brake calipers from groups that have the "old" cable pull ratio, but that it's not ideal. I will say that Shimano would have really been shooting themselves in the foot if the new levers couldn't be used with calipers that don't have the new cable pull ratio. Most new road bikes, for example, that are specced with, say, Shimano 105 5700 shifters/levers will come with brake calipers such as Tektro or a house brand (such as your Oval), etc......... Shimano would have hurt themselves immensely in the OEM market if it was a complete mismatch.

HillRider

If I understand this correctly, the latest Shimano road calipers (5700, 6700, etc.) and their matching series brifters have a cable pull requirement somewhat longer than the older versions, i.e. somewhere between older caliper/lever designs and V-brakes/ V-levers. The change isn't as extreme but it is there.

So using new levers with older brakes requires a bit more hand pressure for equivalent stopping power but less lever travel and using older levers with newer calipers gives more power at a given effort but more lever travel so you have to set the pads a bit closer to the rim. Is this correct?

well biked

I think you have it in a nutshell. I find it kind of interesting that in the above chart there isn't a dashed line going from levers with the "old" cable pull ratio to brake calipers with the "new" cable pull, only the other way around. That would be a case of a bit too much mechanical advantage, and I think that's less desirable than having a little less mechanical advantage than the optimum amount.

In reality, it's not a biggie at all to use the new levers with calipers designed for the "old" amount of cable pull, you'll see that a lot with no problems. I haven't seen a case of "old" levers with "new" Shimano calipers, and I think this would not be common anyway.

pacificcyclist

Under optimum dry braking conditions, you can mix and match road levers with several different brands of brake calipers from FSA, Bontrager, Tektro, Avid and Shimano. What they recommend in terms of component compatibility is when you are braking under poor braking conditions like going down a steep hill in wet conditions where better brake calipers won't "FLEX" as much as el-cheapo calipers which do and generally better calipers come with better pads. Remember that if the brake calipers flex a lot like a spring, pulling on the brake levers as hard as you could only gets this energy stored in the spring rather than converting kinetic energy to friction (heat) which is needed to slow your bike down. For example, a pair of Avid Shorty Ultimate canti brakes are better performers compared to the el-cheapo Tektro Onyx cantis because they don not flex much under hard wet braking conditions when operated by a pair of good Shimano brifters. The Shorty Ultimates aren't cheap either compared to Onyx. Same with Ultegra levers with 105 brake calipers which I have on my carbon bike -- excellent stopping power in dry and wet conditions.

pacificcyclist

This is really odd. If the latest 5700, 6700 and 7900 have different cable pulls, then how do you suppose they all work with the latest touring and cross bikes which DO NOT USE Shimano branded caliper brakes? I have the latest ten speed Shimano lever mated to a pair of canti brakes and braking performance is not in anyway hindered at all. The same canti brakes work with older 9 speed designs too! Remember that touring bikes with fatter tires can not use caliper brakes.

The thing that had changed with the newer design of these STI shifter levers in the brake lever design which does actually allow more pull leverage due to a better mechanical design. I do notice this right away compared to my older 9 speed Ultegra shifters.
The side effect to this is that, the brake calipers must not flex as much, or the better mechanical brake leverage will only get translated to energy stored in the spring when the brake calipers are flexing like it! This is common with cheaper brake calipers or off-brands; anything lower than 105 and with cantilever brakes like Avid Shorty Ultimate or Paul's on touring bikes.
There is a marked difference between having better brake calipers or cantilevers installed than the off-brand ones.

HillRider

The leverage and cable pull change from the 5600 to 5700 series and similar model STI's is not that dramatic, certainly not as much as the difference between standard road and V-brake levers, so I'm not surprised the new levers work fine with older brake calipers.

FastJake

Changing the length of the straddle cable, a cantilever brake is very adjustable. Certainly more than the difference between the old and new levers.

I haven't experienced this. The lower-end Shimano dual-pivot calipers are still excellent, all the way down to Sora. I've used Tektro dual-pivot calipers, and also Tektro V-brakes with great results. IME only the very cheapest brakes these days aren't able to provide impressive performance.

Now, if you start going back in time there are a lot of horrible, useless, unacceptable brakes. Like all the flexy single-pivot sidepulls from the 1980s that came on low-mid end bikes.