Original Message: ----------------- From: themaaslands@comcast.net Date: Fri, 02 Apr 2004 17:18:27 +0000 To: Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org (Classic Rendezvous) Subject: RE: [CR][CR Was: Centerpulls;before: Cantilever Brakes Now: Dual p ivots
"Contrary to what has been said by others recently, I feel that brakes are actually the components that have made perhaps the greatest improvement to overall racing performance. Steven Maasland Moorestown, NJ"
No doubt there... I was astonished when I first rode my Raleigh Competition GS ('79) by how brilliantly she braked and that with plain 'ol Weinmann side pulls and Weinmann concave rims. What an improvement over '50s and earlier British brakes! Of course, a lot of brake performance depends on the rims not the brakes... anyone riding on Dunlop chromed steel HP 27" rims is well schooled at the art of avoiding braking at all costs! There's precious little surface and chromed steel is like braking on a dead eel. Same brakes (GB Sports) on Dunlop alloy rims.. totally different. Centerpull brakes, which we all grew up on, look 'orrible and fussy i.m.h.o. and I don't see how they are any better than sidepulls in efficiency. Oh, the concept says they are as do the brochures but actual use is less certain.
Of course, the idea of proper brakes on a racing bike is rather modern. No self-respecting racing bike in the 1930s had more than a simple front side-pull caliper, earlier than that it was a single rod-brake.
Finally, "Cycling" magazing c. 1953 asserted that the single greatest boon to cycling viz a viz records and speeds had less to do with the bikes than the enormous improvements in roads! They might rethink this if they saw the state of streets around here...
Peter Kohler "I Brake for Brit Bikes" Washington DC USA
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