here are some interesting calipers i noticed on the fea


bay today...

I think I had those on a BSO mtb in college, early 90s.

pit bull is a name in the bmx world, is it not?

Yes. I think they were the hot ticket on BMX bikes before BMX bikes got canti posts.

so. these are probably "meant" for bmx? though i don't see why they couldn't be used on a road bike. pretty neat looking!

I saw these on entry level ATBs in the late 1980s, when Power Cams and U-brakes were popular. It's based on the Plillips/Phlico brake from the inter-war period. Lee Chi had a similar propduct and there were even high end versions from companies like McMahon. The style is generically referred to as scissor brakes.

i like that you don't need all the cable hanger stuff, and it looks very "mechanical" for a steam punk look.

In my experience the braking power was, uh, limited.

was it the brake shoes or the brake calipers themselves?

ha....figured as much!

BINO (brakes in name only!) apply brakes in RI, come to a stop in NJ kinda bad?

only if it means you're hitting ocean. unless you brought swim trunks

stopping is over rated anyway...

I remember being impressed with them on my friends bikes. But I was 10 so…

I bet they’ll work just fine with good pads, cable, short pull lever.

while my driver's license says i'm 67, i'm pretty sure i'm still 10....

That is always the question! The problem is that the brake, from handlebar to rim, is a system. It's easy to determine that every component in the system is working as it should, but even so the result is that the system doesn't work. The problem is probably not so much any particular component, but a minor mismatch.

I used a pair of the Philco "Centralpull" brakes (the ones from the 1930's that these were based on) on my Fothergill bike for a while, and they were pretty useless. Part of the problem with the Philco version was that the stud was at one end of the brake shoe, rather than in the middle --that is, the brake shoe plus stud formed an L shape, rather than a T-shape. Not a great idea. These ones seem to avoid that mistake, but that wasn't enough to overcome the combination of long arms and what's basically a bad design.

I’d give it a shot. Let us know how you like them.

i will do that! i have some on the way.

Exactly!!!

What's the worst that could happen?

These likely won't work good on a road bike they are designed for wider BMX rims and with the short cable pull wont have enough leverage for good braking on narrower road rims. Having the center pull with the brake as single unit seems nice but most I have come across just don't work good. You really need the extra cable pull adjustment of hangers to get good braking on center pulls.

I've done some research and Pitbull was the brand of California based Bear Corporation, most famous for their Odyssey brand bicycle components and accessories and their Gyro detangler headsets for BMX bicycles.

Looks like the arms have convex/concave surfaces where the brake pads mount to allow fine-tuning of the toe-in. That's pretty neat!

well then, here is another choice for throw you out of the saddle braking..

That is interesting. I had not seen this before. I was looking at the pictures figuring out the movement and asking myself how does it manage to move the pad toward the rim. Then I saw the last picture. Clever, but probably not very good.

If I had them on a vintage bike, I would replace the pad material with pads from Kool Stop and use it. How bad could it be? It has the right motion, perhaps not the right leverage, but that would also depend upon the lever.

So, maybe this arrangement works perfectly good with the right lever and pad?

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graveyards well populated with cadavers who share this sentiment...


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