Which brands made long reach (75mm + ) brake calipers?
 

I know Weinmann has the 750 model and I've heard that MAFAC did although I haven't actually seen them. Who else?

Not quite 75mm, but Tektro has the R559 long reach-- 73mm reach.

Very modern looking though.

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/harris/brake-calipers.html has several new long-reach calipers available that have a passable look for a C&V bike:

DiaCompe 750 Centerpull Calipers

Odyssey 1999 Extra Long Reach Caliper Brake

Action© Extra Long Reach Caliper Brake

AFA vintage brands that made brakes when long reach was commonly used, Weinmann and Dia Compe 750 were about 99% of it. And they're actually the same. MAFAC Raids are long reach, but they were not common in N America. Never saw them.

There were some cheap sidepulls in long reach I'm sure. They would have come on discount/department store bikes. Junk even by the low standards of the time.

That's probably why I've never seen the MAFACs. The Dia Compe are excellent for a new part and readily available. I just ordered a rather well used Weinmann 750 rear off of eBay though. The patina matches the rest of the bike much better than the shiny new Dia Compes.

Shimano made a number of long reach road brakes with versions having at least 75mm reach:

Tourney side-pull BB-200, BB-210, BB-230 & BB-240.
Z-series side pull Z-790
Tourney centre-pull, BB-100, BB-110 & BB-120
600 centre-pull, BB-400

These are fairly common and relatively inexpensive but like many vintage brakes often pair a long reach rear caliper with a shorter reach front caliper. You may have to acquire two sets and switch bolts, to get a set with matching reach.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...84f03498cf.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...19ed652e35.jpg


I needed pretty long reach to convert this to 26" mountain bike rims. I did it 30 years ago, so I can't recall where I got them, probably out at the landfill on Kiefer road. Pretty sure they were made by Dia Compe.

I get the impression they were never particularly common anywhere, especially compared to the ubiquitous Racer. And these days they are much prized by the 650b crowd (including yours truly) both for their reach and the fact that they accommodate wide tires much better than other long reach calipers. If you want a pair, prepare to pay a lot and/or wait a long time to find them. (BTW, they are very good brakes.)

SP
OC, OR

Weinmann 800 had 85mm of reach. Not sold on this side of pond AFAIK but fairly common and dirt cheap on Euro market.

Mafac RAID prices have come way down. Not exactly common but have seen them listed and getting no offers on ebay.fr.

If you use brakes mounted on brazed studs, cantilevers or whatnot, you get a lot of choices in reach, though there are limitations with hitting tire or fender.

The questions when talking about long reach, medium reach or extra-long reach brakes, need to be "How long is it?" and "How long does the bike need?"

Kommisar, if you have a long brake on hand, why not just test-fit it and see if it is long enough. While you're at it, measure it's vertical langth from center of caliper mounting bolt to the center of brake shoe mounting post?

My Mafac Racers (NOT Raids) reach about 73 mm. I only needed that because I had a height-neutral fork made for my Trek 610 that added about 30 mm of offset and lengthened the for blades accordingly, to keep the top tube level and preserve head tube angle. If my low-trail bike had been built for front-loading originally, I would not have needed such long calipers. And had I known, I'd probably have gone for canti posts or center-pull posts to be brazed on.

I've never held much less owned a set of Raids, so I do not know if they are longer than Racers. They are certainly fatter, with more clearance for tire and fender.

Interesting. I did that measurement on my Mafac Racers and Freni Universal Sport centerpulls and they both came in at about 65mm. I wonder if Mafac Racers came in different sizes. The Universals are not long enough to reach a 27" to 700C conversion in the rear on one of my frames.

Yes, very interesting! Either one of us could have measured wrong, or there could be different versions and lengths out grazing in the wild. All I can say is, try to get the center of the caliper mounting bolt, and the center of the brake shoe post at the lowest position of the brake shoe installation, and measure the vertical distance. I went downstairs to where the Trek is snoozing and eyeballed it with a millimeter scale, so it's possible that today's measurement is different from the one I did previously. I believe my scale is pretty accurate, but I could easily have lined it up wrong today. Did you test-fit the MAFAC or anything else? That's the "at the end of the day" situation. If that works the numbers, emails and postings no longer matter.

Alas no, the Mafacs are mounted on the Peugeot. If I can get it off without messing with the cables I'll give it a try. Like you I was eye-balling it with my micrometer so I won't claim a high degree of accuracy. I have several pairs of Universal Mod. 51, Mod. 61, and Sport calipers laying around that I could measure more accurately but the only Mafacs are on the Peugeot.

Both the MAFAC Racer and 2000 came in reaches of 48.5-63 mm & 53.3-68 mm. There were also versions with a vertical mounting slot in the bridge that extended the long reach versions of each to 75mm.

So I wasn't too far off with my eyeballed 65mm measurement. I guess I have the shorter version as it does not have a mounting slot. I'm recreating my first Bottecchia and ran into an issue with the rear brake caliper. I had to build wheels for it to get the correct hub/rim combo and figured if I was going to go through the trouble I'd build 700c wheels. The front calipers reach (just barely) but the rear doesn't. I actually found that rather odd that they went through the trouble to make a 27" wheel specific frame although I've always suspected the US version was not the same as the Italian. I've seen pictures of the low-end Italian road models and while they are similar, they still had forged drop-outs and a few other features that would be of use to the entry-level racer rather than the US-based recreational rider.

I think Weinmann and Dia-Compe also made some very long-reach side-pulls. Weren't a lot of Schwinn's equipped with these?
Universal 61 center-pull and 68 side-pull brake sets came with short-reach front and long-reach rear calipers.

Those Campy drop bolts are pretty pricey though. I picked up a Weinmann 750 caliper for $22.

I'll have to take a closer look but the Universal 61s and Sports that I have appear to be the same front and rear. If they make a longer reach that would be awesome. I only need an extra 4mm.

Just measured my Universal 68 at, get ready, 68mm. It's always a little iffy measuring these, for sure there is 66mm and looks like more. They made them in at least 3 different lengths. Can only send you a front, the rear is in use. Have not seen the Fratelli Pietra catalog in a long long time, the 61may come in multiple lengths as well. Could you find one? Who knows.

You can always get a couple mm by filing the slot. At rear most mounting holes will have enough slop you can file a wedge shaped washer/spacer and angle the caliper down for bit more. At your own risk of course.

Here is a MAFAC Racer on the left next to a Freni Universal Sport on the right. Both are rear calipers. Both measure 68mm max reach.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...5b596e2099.jpg

I think you might still be able to find Dia Compe 1080s. They had something like 80mm to 105mm reach, I think.