Polaris OBark

Flat bars put your wrists at an ergonomically disaster of an angle, about 90° rotated from riding on the hoods.

tajimirich

Good point.

Also, in continuing response to the original question (which felt a bit troll'y), I do sometimes have a use for the drop bars when I am not using my bike for urban.. gymnastics... And they look better. And road bikes tend to be much faster. And I never rest my hands on the "flat bars", they're always wrapped around the hoods, they just relatively rarely drop down.

dedhed

So what are the existing brakes?

tcs

You could fit Sturmey-Archer drum brakes.

tajimirich

Sorry I mentioned that somewhere, forgot, they came with the previous bike in early 2021 , they were new.. previous bike was a giant contend, the brakes are shimano but the groupset was Claris so I don't think they're top of the range .

I just bought some Kool stop pads, though I'm looking for better... Actual breaks, too. Preferably Shimano I guess since everything else is

​​​​

tajimirich

I was reading up on different brake types and drum brakes were represented as kind of suboptimal technology, is that not the whole story?

alcjphil

It is very possible that your brake levers are not compatible with your old brake callipers. You mention that your brake levers are 105, but not which version. Newer 105 levers with the gear cable concealed under the bar tape have a lower mechanical advantage than older ones with exposed gear cables. These newer levers work best with brake callipers designed for that lower mechanical advantage. The result of this mismatch is that much more effort is needed to stop your bike which seems to be the problem you are having

tajimirich

That sounds valid. I bought those 105s just a year or so ago in a store, so I guess they're the model released in, was it, 2016? The cables do go under my bar tape. That said, I mean that the callipers were issued with a new bike about a year and a half ago so I don't think they're antiques, exactly.

I see some recent campagnolo veloce brakes on my online store there... my wheels are campagnolo, thinking of going with them.. or being a total fool and springing for some "super record" brakes which are reasonably priced, relatively speaking :/

​​​​​I've asked just how recent those veloces are..

tcs

Suboptimal. Every design has compromises - that's what this whole thread is about. Anyway, here's the $8640 ICE VTX World Champion Di2 Edition, and yeah, those front wheels are fitted with Sturmey drums.

tajimirich

Wild! Maybe they're out of my price range hahaha... Would they fit in any wheel type? Campagnolo Zondas in my case

dedhed

Picture or model #? Seems those would already be dual pivot brakes

tajimirich

Sorry for the awful angle, if you want more I'll take a photo now but it's night time

No longer using the Gatorskins

alcjphil

Campagnolo brakes with Shimano brake levers will not work well. Not only are they not designed for the cable pull of your levers, they also do not have release lever on the brake calliper so you would not be able to remove your wheels without deflating the tires. Just buy current generation 105 brake callipers that will work properly with your brake levers

dedhed

Pictures from the front?

tajimirich

That's a bummer because I just bought a pair.. potenza... It was a Ultegra equivalent midway through last decade apparently... I did a look online and figured that these things are apparently interchangeable to an extent so I went for brakes that match my Campagnolo wheels.. hope I can somehow make it work... My tyres are 25

tajimirich

I'm heading out in a short while so I'll try to get a night snap, watch this space they might be Tiagra... I don't remember any branding on them but apparently the lowest for Shimano calipers is Tiagra.. Unless they're not branded

Herzlos

If you usually have your hands up on the bars, then wouldn't you be better just putting those brake levers back on?

For any other plan, you're probably looking at spending enough money to get a disc brake bike.

tajimirich

Basement entry shimanos lol

tajimirich

They're gone for a reason that hasn't changed

In the end I've just upgraded my pads and brakes, hope it'll work out

79pmooney

I haven't read all the posts so all of this may have been suggested already;

For simple, reliable stoppers, I use older Shimano dual pivots (both picked up used with no model name), new Tektro short pull levers, decent housing; full length for the rear and Koolstp pads. Now, I like to ride the drops. This setup gives me too much power while there so I actually de-power the brakes on these bikes with long pull Tektro levers, OP, don't do this! It isn't great braking on the tops; your preferred hand location but it is sweet when you hit that 25 mph tight and blind corner on a 45 mph descent!

So, my simple (and not very expensive) brakes work so well I de-power them to reduce skidding and lifting the rear wheel on emergency stops. In traffic, these work really well. The Tektro levers are medium quality and don't last forever but the design is excellent, they work very,very well until they tire out and my hands love 'em. At $40 new, I can't really complain about the lifespan. (The pair on my avatar bike have most of 20,000 miles and are doing fine. That works for me.) I think the Shimano calipers will last through my next lifetime. I'd have no qualms using new Shimano or Campy (or even Tektro) calipers. I haven't simply because the dual pivot calipers that were an older model when I got them 15 years ago are doing just fine and I could hardly ask for better stopping.

tajimirich

Love all this insight!

Tell me, what's your take on campy brakes with Shimano levers?

I saw tektro stuff, would they replace my 105 levers? Or just attach to the 105 mechanism?

I like the idea of "short pull" levers, I'm not familiar with them.

I do feel tha power when I ride in my drops, I often get down there on slopes and such, the brakes work fine then.. it's just that feeling of a simple job done badly when my fingers are coming around the hoods and just under the upper swell on the levers.. bums me out. Your tektro stuff sounds great but I've dropped over 1k putting shiny things on this 89 frame and I should probably draw a line somewhere lol (bought the aforementioned campy brakes about an hour ago, woe is me)

veganbikes

Prestige is good tubing and old vintage bikes can be quite fun and if you don't have the attachment to it as a pure vintage bike or trying to keep it period correct you can have a lot more fun

Kool Stop or SwissStop is the way to go pad wise so that should help out quite a bit. Poor pad compounds really do make a huge difference. I had Dura Ace brakes (9 or 10 speed era) with high end levers and had to swap to some god awful XLC pads and it was bad, really bad, like I wasn't stopping well at all, it was quite surprising and at that time I really didn't have a notion of pad compounds and the difference a few dollars could make and it really opened my eyes wide.

Also cables and housing are not something to sleep on either.

dedhed

Looks like Tektro 313? brakes

tajimirich

Maybe they are, I don't see any branding on them, they came on a giant contend with Shimano Claris groupset, I dunno what they typically use.

I cancelled my Campagnolo order, I'm getting some 8100 Ultegra brakes instead. I'll put Kool stops on them..

tajimirich

I feel like with all the help on this thread I've made a good decision.

Yeah my bike gets better every time I ride it, the new wheels seemed to take a few tweaks etc.. but now it's silent as a shadow and it actually feels like it's propelling me forward when I accelerate, amazing feeling