captam3r1ca

Hello all,

So I have a burley road tandem from the early 90s. It's in need of some upgrades. The biggest is brakes. The cantis (no name visible) currently on the bike are kinda shot, and it's time for some new brakes. I've been debating whether I should just get some canits again (not sure which ones), or if I should consider some mini-vs (I've had great luck with them on my touring bike). The catch is that since it's an older tandem, it has 27in wheels, not 700c, so the reach of the brakes needs to work with some 27x1 1/4 in tires. Between myself, my girlfriend, and the bike, we are stopping about 340ish lbs. We are hoping to use this tandem on some of the mountain routes in Colorado, so they need to work well on some quick downhill sections. Any ideas?

Thanks

Monoborracho

I recently was coaxed into trying a set of the new TRP CX8.4 direct pull cantilevers on my new Soma touring bike, rather than the Paul cantilevers I was planning to use. These were designed for the cyclocross market. As near as I can tell, the arms angle out just enough to work with a short pull lever. IMHO, they are excellent. I'm sold, and they work with brifters without a travel agent. It took about 50 miles to seat the pads and eliminate the squeal both front and back.

I'm planning to replace the rim brakes on our tandem, which also has a rear disc, with a set of these and see how they work. Plenty of room for fenders also, which was a consideration for me.

As to whether or not they will work with the 27", I don't know.

TRP

B. Carfree

I'm very happy with the brakes that the shop that built my tandem make in-house:

Brakes designed for tandem and cyclocross bicycles, also brakes for touring bikes and bicycles

mulveyr 

I've got a 1991 Cannondale tandem with 27" wheels. The original Suntour brakes were shot, so I replaced them with Tektro CR-720's and Koolstop pads. They work perfectly. :-)

fxsvelo

We ride a lot of hills. Our Cannondale has Shimano Ultegra 9-speed brifters. I didn't like the Tektro CR-720 so I tried the Shimano CX70. They went back.

Finally settled on Paul Mini Moto, a mini V-brake, and happy with them. Easy to set up, built in adjusters, nice finish, and they stop well.

Our old Burley has Tektro mini-Vs with Shimano 105 brifters which also work pretty well.

reburns

I put Tektro 926 brakes on our 2005 T2000 with Ultegra brifters. I put Swissstop green pads in some spare Shimano V brake pad holders and use these instead of the stock Tektro shoes. I also installed a Davinci "small stiffy" brake arch stiffener on the front. I couldn't be happier with our braking.

AKTed

I'll second the recommendation of Paul MiniMoto's. I installed them on our older Santana Arriva as I wanted strong brakes and didn't care for the travel agent adapters needed on the existing linear pull brakes.

The MiniMoto's do need to be adjusted pretty close to the rim, but they are quite strong, and modulate well in my opinion, using Campy 9s levers.

Untitled by Ted, on Flickr

I have tried really hard to like cantilever brakes but I have never been able to get them to work as well as I would like. I had several different brands on my touring bike (single) including the Tektro CR-720s, but was not happy with the stopping power, it just took to much effort (force) to bring the bike to a reasonable stop. I finally installed inexpensive Shimano Deore linear pull brakes with appropriate levers, and they are simple to set up and work amazing.

But if you have road levers, I highly recommend the MiniMotos.

Monoborracho

Thanks. I have considered those also. They are about twice the price of the TRP CX8.4 though. But brakes are priceless, particularly with my children's mother on the back of the bike.

AKTed

Now that I re-read your original post on the CX8.4s, I would have concurred with you, as I have a pair of them on my Ritchey Breakaway Cross, and they work as well as the MiniMotos.

IkeCan

I would suggest you consider Avid Single Digit 7 brakes. I installed them on my '95 Santana Encore tandem last year. The brakes are extremely responsive and strong. I just purchased a new Santana Ti tandem and it has Avid Single Digit 7 rim brakes on the front. Also the brakes are not expensive. I bought a pair of the brakes on e-bay for under $50.

JanMM

Our tandem has an Avid Single Digit 7 on the front and it works very well.

Philly Tandem

We have the Avid SD7 V-brakes with Travel Agents (STI levers) on our triplet, and they reliably stop our Santana triplet, with a rolling weight (bike, three people, misc stuff) of 500+ pounds.

Whatever brake you choose, I highly recommend installing Kool Stop "salmon" brake pads (like AKTed has in his photo). This compound is available in brake shoes for most types of brakes (V, canti, even road). See Kool-Stop Salmon Linear Pull Brake Pads > Components > Brakes > Brake Pads | Jenson USA It's a softer compound and will wear more quickly than common "black" pads, but the stopping power is well worth the increased wear.

Darth Lefty 

I'm curious how canti brakes get "shot." Did you all really wear out the pivots? The only worn-out brake calipers I've had were the parallelogram XT V-brakes from the 90's.

marciero

Another vote for Mini Moto. I had the Avids with Travel Agent. They work well enough but I really hate the Rube Goldberg-ish design of those, clever as it is. Very difficult to do the cable run. They are clunky, etc. The Mini Moto work awesome. I would guess the TRP 8.4 would work similar. They are both linear pull with shorter arms to work with shifter/brifter levers.

fietsbob

Magura HS 33 .. Hydraulic rim brakes.. even better on the back, as then long hose has no losses like a long cable does..

though when at the Burly Shop in 90 they had Extra Scott SE cantilevers , I Put them on my Touring Bike ..

add More Brakes .. you can build up a rear wheel with a Drum brake [Sturmey-Archer]
Sturmey Archer | X-RDC

since the Old Arai Drag brakes were discontinued ..

Typical to have 3 brakes on a Tandem, 2 rim and one Hub..

Bike Fridays tandems put a drum Front Hub Brake in, and the 2 rim brakes ..



a700c rim is about 4mm in radius smaller than a 27" so the trick if you want to change to more common 700c from 27"

is have the pads drop about that 5mm closer to the axle... 622 , vs 630 as Diameters.