I agree that high end sidepulls are pretty nice looking, but at similar levels of refinement I think centrepulls are technically better as braking devices. Sidepulls do have a slight weight advantage which may or may not be a deciding factor overall. For me it certainly is not.
On my fleet of bikes I have quite the mixed bag of centrepull, sidepull and cantilever brakes. None of them have given me any particular difficulties, and their braking performance runs from adequate to ample.

M.A.F.A.C. Competitions are good stoppers. I like 'em.

I agree.

There's the length from the application point (where you put your fingers) to the pivot. Then there's the length from that pivot to where the brake engages the pivoting handle. Mix in some trigonometry, and you can calculate the leverage of the lever. The lever that Universal made pulled too much cable for a given amount of actuation. This gives it a nice solid feel, but you have to pull harder to apply a given amount of force.

They are all adequate. Comparing two brakes and finding one to be more powerful is mostly a function of the amount of leverage. People who have only used V brakes and dual pivots consider other brakes to be inadequate, but that's because they're not used to squeezing hard. Stiffness is another factor.

It sure is .....

I agree with post #54, & #55 for that matter. There is a happy medium between over-sensitivity, and excessive effort. The drawback of over-sensitivity is obvious. The main drawback of excessive effort would be fatigue over a long ride, leading to loss of braking power & potential vulnerability to sudden hazards requiring hard braking. Of course the coefficient of friction between the pads & the rims plays a large role in the trade-off between sensitivity and effort, so for any apples-to-apples comparison, that would have to be normalized.
Stiffness is quite another dimension to the problem. Boiled down, inadequate stiffness will show up as non-linearity, which could be manifested either as fade (******ing force flattens out with increasing force at the lever) or as runaway braking (control of braking is wrested from the rider, brakes lock up autonomously). Either way, inadequate stiffness can be very bad.

I can easily lock the back wheel and even the front with some effort with my Mod. 61s. Nothing like the dual pivot Veloce brakes on my modern Bianchi but I'd say good enough.

I've got a myriad of brakesets spread out among the rigs in the quiver; SunTour Superbes, 600 Arabesques, D/C 500G's, XTR M900 canti's and XTR M950 V-brakes. They all stop perfectly fine for me, and I ain't the slimmest one in the paceline, either. Personally, I think it all comes down to the right levers, spring tension, and maintenance. Zukahn's right; with the right combination even a D/C 610 centerpull brake can stop a wheel with sufficient force to do the job; adjust and lube the two pivot bolts, make sure the pin is in the groove, have the correct straddle cable and yoke.

The V brakes and linear pull levers on my folder have some of the lightest action of any brakes I run... you can lock things up with a pinky finger and for long descents this is great as your hands do not get fatigued.

The Campy Victory levers have a slightly harder pull but deliver equally stunning braking with the Zeus centre pull brakes... and you can brake nicely from the hoods with these conventional non aero levers too. Interesting enough was that the Victory levers worked poorly with their matching side pull brakes while the Record levers I first tried with the Zeus brakes were not as good as the Victory series, but work fabulously with the Victory calipers.

Little changes in actuation can make a huge difference in how parts perform.

I have also set up Mafac levers and centre pulls so that you get a very light action and can brake with authority from the hoods... nice thing about the Mafac centre pull is that you can adjust the straddle and tune them quite precisely.

Enough conversation. Vote with your photos.



29 669 by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

The nice thing about the new crop of brakes is that it allows people with weak or small hands to use them fully. My wife's hands aren't that strong, and she doesn't feel secure on some of my bikes because she can't squeeze the brakes hard enough. I'm not a big guy, but I've been blessed with very long hands and strong finger muscles. I've also been using my hands in bike mechanics and similar things, strengthening them and keeping them strong.

Not mine, but still IMO one of the nicest looking centerpull calipers:

Y'all must have some really straight rims. Every bike I've ever had was pretty cheap, and at least one pad was always almost touching the rim while the other was further away, and my rims usually weren't too straight leading the lovely intermittent scrape-scrape-scrape as the warped section of the rim hit the pads. Guess I'm just not a real biker yet Probably why my other bike is a Kawasaki instead of a Harley too *shrug*

Have since changed to classic blocks with Kool Stop inserts (same amazing stopping power)... they are also some of the lightest centre pull brakes ever made and they are very stiff.

Let us help you! We can let you know if you should fix or replace your wheels. You should not tolerate wobbly rims. We can get your brakes working, too.

Brent

I tried adjusting the spokes on a rim once. I believe all I accomplished was moving the warped spot to a different area of the rim At least the original spot was straight I guess?

We can walk you through that by giving instructions or pointing you to the right web pages. Be sure to browse sheldonbrown.com.

Or we can tell you what to tell your local bike shop (LBS) mechanic to do for you. Get your wheels straight and your brakes working well so you can ride more. And you'll enjoy it more.

I used to have these on my Cera:


but then I changed them to these:

DANG IT!

That is some serious Eye candy amoungst all the other eye candy in this thread. Beautiful paint, incredible attention to detail.

Which brand of brakes are those? And the bike? (I am not one of the guys here who can identify a bike with a swatch of paint. )

+1 That was the scoop when I first fell in love with road bikes back in the seventies, well, up to the level of quality I was exposed to at least.

Of all the brakes mentioned, the ones not mentioned seem the best to me: the GB Coureur 66. Not only are they more powerful, but they also look the best, although those Zeus brakes look pretty sweet.

I run the GBs on my Paramount, with Jagwire brake pads. No squeal, easy setup, and plenty of stopping power yet easy to feather. I remember when they were new they were like that too. If you look at the geometry, they look to have about twice the braking power of the Weinmanns, on account of the actuation arm is twice as long as the brake arm. On the Weinmann they are the same length. I'll try to post a photo later, in the meantime scroll down the link:

https://www.classiclightweights.co.uk/components/gb.html

A nice design was Dia-compe Gran Compe center pulls , very pretty ! Brake boosters work, some mini racks do the same function . Brake booster can mount lights , camera etc. Have used cut-up chainrings, old alloy freewheel cogs . Rat-bike that sucker !

I finally got my 'new style' Dia Compe 610s set up properly, and I'm fairly pleased with the results.

The matching mini-rack, though beautiful, broke not too long ago. Velo Orange graciously took it back and offered me store credit. I'm pleased with their customer service.