Best brakes and wheels for S&S Coupled touring bike?

[tbessie]

Hi all...

So I currently have two touring bikes - one is a Bruce Gordon Rock n' Road Tour (American maker, very well known, though retiring as of this weekend, in fact); the other is a Surly Long-Haul Trucker that I had chopped into two and S&S couplers put on.

I like them both, but I'm currently attempting to consolidate my road and touring bikes.

For the touring bikes, I decided to get a custom-made titanium frame to cut down on weight, and as part of this, I want to choose brakes and wheel size to better fit in the S&S case.

I visited the frame-maker today (a rather famous guy here in California, been building frames and bikes since the 1980s), and discussed options with him. I asked him how he felt about getting 26" wheels and mechanical disc brakes to reduce packed size for the bike in the case. He said that that might work, though he felt that 26" was slowly dying, and that 27.5" (650b) might be a better choice. He also showed me a cantilever brake he thought might also work well (a Paul Racer Medium brake).

If any of you have an S&S coupled bike and have some knowledge in this regard, what do you think would be best for 1) compact size in S&S case and 2) future-proofing (to some extent) the bike?

As it is, my current coupled bike is 700c with cantilever brakes, and the wheels barely fit in the case (and I have to remove the tires), and the brakes poke up and get in the way a bit. I'm not sure if other styles of cantilever brakes, or even mechanical disc brakes, would make it easier, as I haven't tried them yet. Also, the builder commented that sometimes packing in a case could dent the disc rotor, which wouldn't be a fun thing as it could cause uneven brake performance, noise, etc.

I was thinking that caliper brakes would probably be the least bulky, but I've been told that they aren't dependably strong enough when, say, going downhill fast fully loaded.

So - any opinions, thoughts, or suggestions?

- Tim

[gdlerner]

Hi
Depend where you will be touring,I also own a bike with s&s and 26 wheels,maybe you are a little be slowly but so what you are touring or you want to race? The brakes
first I got magura and I decide to change to avid v s digit 7 brakes.I don t own a case for the bike but with 26 wheels will be much compact to pack

[Brucey]

I agree that in the affluent parts of the world 559 wheels are no longer flavour of the month but the day that this means you will be more likely to get a 584 wheel or tyre instead in an emergency is still a very long way off IMHO. In other parts of the world I expect 584 wheels to remain an obscure oddity for a considerable time to come.

With a 37mm touring tyre mounted, a 559 wheel measures a little over 25" dia, a 584 is about 26" and a 622 is well over 27".

Regarding brakes there are very many options. Just to add fat to the fire there are such things as 'dry-break' hydraulic couplings so in theory you could have any hydro brake if you wanted. Wouldn't be my first choice, but hey.

Centrelock discs come off fairly quickly which means they can be stowed separately which cuts down on the risk of damage.

With cantis or Vees I would suggest that you aim to strap the caliper arms down so that they don't poke out sideways when the bike is packed.

Simply because they will suffer the inevitable knocks in the case rather better than discs, Sturmey Archer drum brakes are worth a look. They take ages to bed in, work best with short cable pull levers (IME) and won't be powerful brakes otherwise. They are about the same weight as run-of-the-mill disc brakes, once you tot everything up. There is one extra bolt to deal with (the rear reaction arm) but the front will fit into a slotted braze-on fitting. The rear brake cable is QD at the hub, so there is no need for a fancy brake line coupling when splitting the bike; just mount the housing in serpentine/slotted braze-ons so that it can be popped out as required.

Some will say that spare/replacement parts for SA hub brakes are not to be found in the field. 'Tis true; to mitigate this possible difficulty, I'd suggest that you have canti braze ons on the frame, and in the unlikely event of a wheel needing replacement, aim to fit a standard wheel and a rim brake of some kind.

More than one way of skinning a cat....

cheers