Bendy Dual Pivots

[Mick F]

Thanks for posting a photo Mick - they look a lot better than I feared. I might get a pair if you notice a marked difference in performance over the Tektros - even though as mentioned before and confirmed today (due to an emergency stop being required ) the rear wheel does indeed lock up on my Tektro'd TSR, without too much effort.

During my testing of the brakes down the lane on Thursday, I too locked up the rear wheel. This was the first time I'd ever managed it.
I put it down to two things.
1. The weather had been wet so the road wasn't very dry - dry, but not very dry.
2. Because I'd done pseudo emergency stop test over and over for the sake of consistency, maybe the brakes had warmed up a bit. You get that with cars and brakes of course. They need warming up to get the best out of them - racing cars in particular.

Any road up, there was a window in the schedule today - we have our seven year old grandson staying with us this weekend - so I tore myself away from him and fitted the brakes. He, meanwhile, busied himself playing with my tools.

I'm very very VERY impressed with these brakes. Stiff as as stiff things, and although I haven't measured the flex, I reckon it's LESS than my Campag Athena .............. and that's saying something.

It'll have to wait until Monday before I can get out and ride with them, but I am in doubt whatsoever that they'll be brilliant.
£60 well spent.

Yet again, this forum and its members has come up trumps again. Special thanks must go to Tatanab and Pwa for mentioning the R650s. Thanks guys.

[Samuel D]

I’m surprised. I wouldn’t say my BR-R650s are particularly stiff. Stiff enough, surely, but not remarkably stiff.

Interested to hear how you like them after a bit of use.

[Mick F]

Off on a ride tomorrow and I'll thoroughly test them out, and report back of course.

[Mick F]

Twenty odd miles done this morning.

Generally, on the open road, I don't use the brakes much at all, and I'm no different to other cyclists I would expect.
Therefore, I needed a hilly twisty route, so I chose a ride over onto the Bere Peninsula - Bere Alston and Bere Ferrers plus the little lanes up and down by the rivers.

Anyway, the roads are tortuous there, and I did lots of braking.

From the outset, these brakes showed themselves to be so much better than the Bendy Tektros. They felt at least as good as any sidepulls I've ever used. Solid, strong, progressive, and not in the least spongy or vague.

Very very pleased with these brakes.
Absolutely highly recommended. Get them from Ribble if you want any, but be quick!
http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/shimano-r ... #pid=23794

[deliquium]

Thanks Mick for the photos showing the 'silveriness' of the Shimano R650s and the subsequent test report - and others' recommendations

Have ordered a a pair for my Moulton TSR, not cos the Tektro R359s didn't stop me more than adequately, but their stainless steel springs and various bolt heads are rusting after 18 months + the front brake 'quick release' linkage is reluctant to do so, even after copious lubricant applications and a lot of 'wiggling'

Have ordered a pair of R650s from Ribble and got a fiver off too = £55 inc delivery - for temporarily subscribing to their 'newsletter'

[Mick F]

Good work there!
Can't sniff at £55 for these brakes.

I like the QR on the Shimano brakes as it's positive and chunky, but the Tektro ones are rubbish. The QR is plasticy, rubbery, and flimsy, and one of mine has split a bit.
In fact, the plastic system should be a proper latch that you move backward to release, but it's never actually needed as it slips off anyway.

[JohnW]

I'm possibly throwing fat into a fire that's died down here, but I have some Tektro R559 DP calipers on the rear of two of my bikes. These brakes give up to 73mm drop. I needed 65mm drop, and the R359s didn't quite make it. The R559s perform perfectly well. I had to do a bit of mix and match of parts on one of the R559s, to make the front caliper fit the rear on the frame, and it was more complicated because one frame had been built for allen key fitting and the other for nutted fitting, and it also meant sacrificing a Shimano RX100 caliper, but honestly, they work - no problems with them - I can lock the rears on dry tarmac.

http://www.spacycles.co.uk/m2b0s100p1410/TEKTRO-R559

[Mick F]

They look like a very different and better quality brake to me. Maybe they are stouter and stronger because they are longer?

Mine flexed bent(?) at the pivot. The long arm didn't look like it was bending, as all the bending centred around the pivot ........... just here.

It seems that there isn't much meat there, and the long arm seems to bend there on both of the brakes. I'm surprised by this, as I'd expect them to snap!

[deliquium]

I'm possibly throwing fat into a fire that's died down here, but I have some Tektro R559 DP calipers on the rear of two of my bikes. These brakes give up to 73mm drop. I needed 65mm drop, and the R359s didn't quite make it. The R559s perform perfectly well. I had to do a bit of mix and match of parts on one of the R559s, to make the front caliper fit the rear on the frame, and it was more complicated because one frame had been built for allen key fitting and the other for nutted fitting, and it also meant sacrificing a Shimano RX100 caliper, but honestly, they work - no problems with them - I can lock the rears on dry tarmac.

http://www.spacycles.co.uk/m2b0s100p1410/TEKTRO-R559

I'm very happy too with Tektro R559 very deep drop dual pivot calipers on a 1948 Stallard with 700C wheels. Couldn't/wouldn't want any better braking.

But I am a scaredy cat going downhill on anything ~17% so slow to almost walking pace for peace of mind

[Mick F]

...... so slow to almost walking pace for peace of mind

This has just resurrected a passing thought I had today ...........

I have suffered twice with blowouts on the Moulton when descending steep narrow and restricted lanes. Braking hard for half a mile creates heat in smaller wheels, and the front inner tube complains and then blows out.

Now ............... it occurs to me, that if I have spongy brakes, I'm hanging off them at full squeeze without a good hard retardation. Because I now have powerful - non spongy - brakes, I could brake hard and slow down effectively, and then release to cool down, then re-apply brakes again.

............. I wonder.

[JohnW]

...... so slow to almost walking pace for peace of mind

This has just resurrected a passing thought I had today ...........

I have suffered twice with blowouts on the Moulton when descending steep narrow and restricted lanes. Braking hard for half a mile creates heat in smaller wheels, and the front inner tube complains and then blows out.

Now ............... it occurs to me, that if I have spongy brakes, I'm hanging off them at full squeeze without a good hard retardation. Because I now have powerful - non spongy - brakes, I could brake hard and slow down effectively, and then release to cool down, then re-apply brakes again.

............. I wonder.

Someone is probably going to say that this is a different topic for a different thread - but did the heat that you were generating actually melt the inner tube, or were they at old/mended punctures where the heat had melted the adhesive? - I've witnessed that, but it was more a violent hiss than an actual blowout.

[Mick F]

Yes, it is the subject of a different thread, but to summarise .........

Happened twice on two different hills, but the two hills had restrictive views, narrow with corners, poor road surface etc.
Had I been able to let fly down the hills, we wouldn't be having this discussion.
I had to brake almost continually with both brakes.
By the time I'd got to the bottom, the front rim was so hot I couldn't touch it.
The front tube sighed and went flat instantly.
The tubes were new and unpatched.
Taking the tubes out to fit new ones, showed a tear in the tubes about half an inch long on the inside run next to the rim.
Trying to repair them later was futile. I tried, and added more patches, but it seemed that the tube had become impossible to repair.

Advice seems to be to swap braking front and rear, so the rims get a rest. I couldn't brake effectively with just the rear brake as it was weak. It could be now, that with MUCH better callipers, that I could brake ok with just the rear brake going down a steep hill.

I will experiment today on my ride.

Here's the thread.
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=114716

[MartinC]

Mick, more fat for the fire.

A while ago I bought a Trek 1.2 to knock about on. It had unbranded calipers (I googled the part numbers on them and I think I know what they were - but they're not Tektro). They were rubbish. I put better cables on and better pads and they were still rubbish. I came to the same conclusion as you - all the energy going into the brake was being used up in bending the caliper. So I changed the calipers and the new ones were excellent and compared favourably with the also excellent Shimano A650s I've got on another bike. The new calipers were ........................ Tektro R359s! They were the older version which lack the plastic safety catch on the QR but are otherwise the same shape. I rate these brakes as almost as good as the Shimano ones and really good value for money.

John's comments on the 559s are interesting too. I've just got a bike fitted with these and first impressions are limited but good. They're currently being use with Claris STIs so in theory they're compromised by the levers having the wrong cable pull.

Don't know what to make of our totally different experiences.

[Roadster]

I can't speak to the Tektro R3** series but my current bike came fitted with R556s, the almost identical preceding version of the R559s. Being OEM, they didn't bear the "Tektro" printed logo as a conspicuous badge of shame but did have "Poor Man's Shimano" written all over them in invisible ink.

Being a snob, I was of course totally unimpressed with them at first, but then swapped their pads for SwissStop Original Black which vastly improved their performance. I hate to admit it but I've been quite satisfied with them ever since - they've worked well, felt right and done everything I've asked of them over the past couple of years or so.

Am I proud of them? Not exactly, but do I feel a burning need or desire to upgrade them before they wear out?
Not particularly, and definitely not while superior alternatives remain somewhat thin on the ground...

[JohnW]

I can't speak to the Tektro R3** series but my current bike came fitted with R556s, the almost identical preceding version of the R559s. Being OEM, they didn't bear the "Tektro" printed logo as a conspicuous badge of shame but did have "Poor Man's Shimano" written all over them in invisible ink.

Being a snob, I was of course totally unimpressed with them at first, but then swapped their pads for SwissStop Original Black which vastly improved their performance. I hate to admit it but I've been quite satisfied with them ever since - they've worked well, felt right and done everything I've asked of them over the past couple of years or so.

Am I proud of them? Not exactly, but do I feel a burning need or desire to upgrade them before they wear out?
Not particularly, and definitely not while superior alternatives remain somewhat thin on the ground...

I have to admit that, if I could have bought Shimano brakes with the same drop as the R559s, I would have done so. However, I couldn't and the R559s were the only DPs that gave sufficient drop and that I could find - maybe if I'd looked further I could have found something.............but honestly, they're fine.

I have to admit initial doubts, because I'd tried "Poor Man's Shimano" brakes before (badged as 'Acor') and found very poor quality- parts in the callipers not fitting each other properly and a lot of flex in the system - but I was genuinely pleasantly surprised with my Tektros. I think that there's a range of prices within the Tektro range, and maybe the cheaper ones would be similar to the 'Acors' that I had. Incidentally, apart from the feeling of 'sponginess' with the 'Acors', they did do the job with the Shimano levers.

At the moment I'm using Shimano levers on all my bikes - no STIs you'll notice! - I have Exage and RX100 at the moment. I've used Exage levers on DuraAce callipers, I've used Exage and RX100 on Weinmann 600 callipers, I've used Weinmann levers on Shimano DP callipers, I've used Ofmega, GB and Sun-Tour on Weinmann callipers and I've used GB levers on Weinmann callipers. They've all worked fine.

I'm pretty sceptical when those who make money out of selling stuff to us tell me that levers X won't work with callipers Y and levers Y won't work with callipers Z. Quite often STI levers won't work with an 11speed cassette, because they were part of a group-set from the days of 8speed cassettes, but the levers will work well with just about any calliper brakes.