[CR] Side Pull brakes

(Example: Production Builders:Peugeot:PX-10LE)

Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 17:29:48 -0800
From: "Norris Lockley" <norris.lockley@yahoo.com>
To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Subject: [CR] Side Pull brakes


I'm not convinced that I can add very much in the way of authoritative figu res etc etc about the various merits of sidepull versus centre-pull brakes, but I thought that I might throw in a few observations

My first lightweight brakes were GB Hiduminium ones..very revolutionary way back in 1951, particularly as they were made out of a sophisticated alumin ium alloy and had hooded levers. Their real problem was their stirrup lengt h which gave rise to considerable chatter. The next pair I bought in 1954 w ere stamped Frejus to fit onto my Super Corsa. Of course these were in fact Universals, ..had rubber hoods and had shorter stirrups..and braked better and had less chatter. Then in 1956, along with a change of frame came a ch ange of brake..and I had been seduced by the superb finish and appearance o f the Weinmann 730 sidepull and its elegant lever. However a more elegant l ever, a beautiful one almost art nouveau in its curvaceousness, the sinuo us ALP/CLB paired with its chunky no- nonesense shorter stirrup and wing-nu t type QR took my fancy. They had good pads - La Vipere - I think and laste d years until I caught Anquetil and Poulidor fever and transferred my affection to the ubiquitous and highly successful Mafac Racer and its m ore refined derivatives.

And so I rested content until I came across my first pair of B/O Mafac 2000 s..and then I started to use the MAFAC B/O cantilevers on various bikes, us ing anything from the diminutive Jacky version to the longer tandem ones. I n more recent years, like the majority of cyclists I caught a groupset in fection and have used various Campagnolo brakes ever since, except for when I use the B/O Mafacs.

In selecting brakes I have never ever taken into consideration their weight , just their efficiency. When different brands of brakes offered different weights for the same stirrup lengths eg, 400 mm close clearance on a time-t rial bike, and where ultimate braking was not a crucial factor I occasional ly chose the lightest and..most aerodynamic, so that I might choose some of the very sophisticated CLB aero brakes over say, the Dia Compe..and Campag nolo Record never featured on any of my time-trial bikes. The only exceptio n to that rule was that I never chose Modolo Kronos for any purpose..as the y did not seemed designed to offer any braking power.

If I were to be strictly honest I would choose to use the Mafac standard B/ O cantilever, or its Weinmann or Modolo derivatives, for almost any bike, r egardless of the bike's function. The brakes are efficient, easy set up and maintained..and happen to be light. In the 80s Hinault and Fignon both roa d Gitane road bikes, on accasions, and certain stages in the Tour de France .., fitted with such MAFAC brakes.

One brake that I never tried, perhaps because it did not appear functional enough was the Campag Delta..possibly because it reminded me of it being a grown up version of the Modolo Kronos. At the Paris Show in about 1992, I h appened to meet up with Sean Kelly and Stephen Roche during a quiet period.  With Kelly I discussed frames and with Roche, brakes, the reason for th e latter being that most of the Campag equipped bikes had Delta brakes and Roche's Carrera, that was on show, sported the Campag Cobalto side-pull.

When asked why he did not use the Delta he replied that, having tested them , he found them, in certain racing conditions, to be downright dangerous. W hen asked to describe the conditions and the reasons, he said that when usi ng the slimmer rims even some such as the MAVIC SSC, which were not the sli mmest in use, the Deltas had to be adjusted close to give effective breakin g. The problem that arose was that as the two hinged stirrups inside the smooth outer cow moved closer to the rim, so the upper end of the stirrup m oved to reveal gaps between themselves and the apex of the cowling. Roche m aintained that the gaps allowed grit to enter into the precision mechanism and to  impede and occasionally jam up the braking action. In rainy condi tions, with more grit being carried around on the treads of the tubulars, m ore grit got into the works, often rendering the Deltas virtually lethal in terms of stopping ability.

Wasn't the Delta mechanism similar to the one used on Shimano's AX aero cal iper and the very early French JEAY brakes ?

Norris Lockley..still relying on MAFAC technology..Settle UK