Cycling UK Forum

I am trying to get my head 'round how to make brakes on my 1973 ti Raleigh road bike better. It still has the original Weinmann brakes on, side pull callipers and new pads. No comparison with the sora/STI. combination on my modern audax bike. What will make the difference - putting on modern callipers (eg soras) or STIs or both?

Thanks

Martin

There is some wonderful stuff from "Brucey" here...http://forum.ctc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=63112&start=45

which model/what reach brake do you have?

What pads and rims?

What cables are you using?

Note that older brakes use higher lever ratios and higher cable tensions; this makes the cable quality more important than with newer brakes.

cheers

are you using steel rimmed wheels which are inevitably wet at the moment?!

Blimey, blinded by science ... Need to go and check, cables are the ones that the shop fitted 18 months ago when last serviced (not much help, is it).

The rest I'll have to look at, but know they are alu wheels.

Martin

Ok, reach of the brakes (Weinmann, 1970s stuff)) seems to be 40-60mm, rims are aluminium. Pads are indescript, bogstandard 'no-name' pads. Cables, er, don't know, brake cables??? As for wet weather and ineffective brakes - even in the dry they are not exactly "stunning" performers.



Martin

why don't you try a few swapsies?

Try the brake blocks from your other bike.
Try a brake caliper swap. (but be aware of different leverage ratios and cable pulls)

No-name brake blocks can easily make your brakes not work. So can cables that don't have liners and/or lubrication.

But when all is said and done the weinmann brakes are likely not going to work as well as the modern stuff, there has been progress in the last forty years....

cheers

[url]the weinmann brakes are likely not going to work as well as the modern stuff[/url]

I assume that's more the calipers than the levers ???

Martin

its not that simple; they are designed to work together. Although it might be OK for an experiment, for various reasons it is not necessarily a good idea to mix modern levers with older calipers or older levers with modern calipers in the long run.

Q. would you buy no-name tyres and expect them to grip as well as decent ones?

If not, then why not try some proper brake blocks.

cheers

Brucey wrote: ...But when all is said and done the weinmann brakes are likely not going to work as well as the modern stuff, there has been progress in the last forty years....

+1 but I'd include a word such as "remarkable" before "progress."

Koolstop Salmons solved the same problem with the same brakes for me.

With older style brakes/pads/rims that do not "bite" at all! You can find yourself squeezing your levers incredibly hard, so hard that the cable housing flexes A LOT.

A better quality, or more specifically "linear" outer will transmit the force a lot better.

In addition to this, make sure your caliper itself is in good working order and can move freely, and that your rims are clean.

hexhome wrote:Koolstop Salmons solved the same problem with the same brakes for me.

Please excuse my lack of knowledge on this subject . . but when i looked up these pads,they appeared to be just replacement rubbers . That in it's self is a bit of a revelation to me . . cant remember being able to change just rubbers 20yrs ago . So somewhat of a basic question i'm afraid . . can you buy these pads already in holders . If not can you recommend suitable holders that these rubbers can be fitted to . . i assume that suitable holders would come with rubbers already fitted to them . . cant imagine that would be sold as a seperate item .

My Weinmann's were fitted with cartridges like these - http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/clarks-road- ... prod22566/

The performance with those pads was between 'barely adequate' and 'scary'. I replaced the pads with these - http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/koolstop-koolstop-shimano-dura-salmon-(wet-and-muddy)-inserts-prod21058/ and the performance is now between 'adequate' and 'confident'.

steeleagle wrote:With older style brakes/pads/rims that do not "bite" at all! You can find yourself squeezing your levers incredibly hard, so hard that the cable housing flexes A LOT.

A better quality, or more specifically "linear" outer will transmit the force a lot better.

In addition to this, make sure your caliper itself is in good working order and can move freely, and that your rims are clean.

If by "linear" you mean gear cable housing, then that is outright dangerous. In the short term , it could function ok, but the steel wires of the housing, incased in the plastic casing aren't designed to hold the forces applied when applying the brakes. Ultimately, the cable will collapse, possibly quite suddenly, because there is nothing other than the plastic casing stopping the individual wires from buckling or popping out. All it takes is a nick in the plastic.

Or perhaps you meant something completely different, but I took that "linear" could only mean one thing.