Bikedued

Very nice riding bike! Now it has a Brooks and matching bar wrap. The grips are going, to be replaced with cork or something Earth tone at least. Skinwall Pasela's are in the plans too. I am still on the fence about fenders.,,,,BD

How it looks as of this evening. Maybe one day the sun will come out, and my regular Digital cam batteries won't be dead. For now, the Alcatel will have to do.

Bikedued

Deore DX with XT shifters. Flag cranks. LX hubs and Matrix rims. Soma 3 speed moustache bar. Yep, the straddle cables are too long, but I plan to change the brakes to something silver anyway. Maybe Tektro 720's, actually that's exactly what will be on there I imagine.,,,,BD


Big thanks go out to Bianchigirl for the great deal on the Brooks B.17. Yes I was talking to someone else here about another honey B.17, and if that one isn't sold already I will buy that one too. Just need a little more time.(income tax return will solve a lot of bike modding problems, hehe).,,,,BD

acoffin 

I would put fenders on that and call it done. Looks like a fun bike to beat around town in. In fact, I built something similar this winter.

simmonsgc

Cool build; you slapped that one right together. School me if you get 720's for that bike and get them set up. I have a set and tried them on my 88 MB/2 and it was no dice. Or at least I would've needed to 1) bend the bejeezus outta the springs and 2) find exceedingly thin pads. I measured the canti post spacing but can't remember the number right now. It did seem to me at the time that I just couldn't set those brakes up to work on my frame anyway. But, I always allow for the possibility that I'm just dumb as a rock. Also, my front fork isn't original.

seely

Looks great! Gumwalls will really tie it together. It looks like a good candidate for the 26x1.75's... might as well take advantage of the tire clearance. And that rear triangle... almost looks like a pre-xtracycle! Awesome city/trekker/commuter.

As for brakes/straddles... if you plan to add fenders/racks... might want to wait until you do to evaluate your straddle cable situation. I just had to redo mine on my drop bar MTB after changing the racks/fenders around a bit. Stock ones rubbed the fenders F&R and bottomed out on rack's brake bridge mount.

Bikedued

I put the 720's on the Schwinn Sierra "touring" bike I built. I swapped the spacers inside to out on the pads, as a starting point. I am almost certain there is a spring adjuster screw on those? maybe I am remembering badly, which I tend to do sometimes.Setting them up has alot to do with rim width for sure. Since they're a modern brake, I imagine the thinner the rim the better off you are. Straddle cable cable length is the key to braking power. The brakes I have on it right now call for a shorter cable, and the straddles I picked up are long, more like a tektro 720 setup, so I should be good there. Once I get them and start installing them, I will probably do a better job of explaining it, haha.,,,,BD

simmonsgc

Yup, they have an adjustment screw. I did the spacer swap to add as much clearance on the rim side as possible, and added all the tension I could with the adjuster. I didn't even get to the straddle cable issue. With everything maxed-out (or minned-out if you prefer) the pads flopped against the rim with no resistance added by the spring. It would take a ridiculously narrow rim to work, combined with some crazy spring bending. The geometry just seemed completely hosed. I hope you get these and mount them on your MB-2. I have a nice silver set of 720s and I'd love to use them, and there can't be that big a difference between an '86 and an '88. Unless it's just a modern vs. vintage post spacing issue, I couldn't see what I was doing wrong. Bet you can school me on it if they work for you. I gave up and got some Dia Compe 986's. Thanks for the followup!