Originally Posted by
Aubergine
All of my older bikes have their brakes mounted through a single bolt. And like you, I remembered old Weinmann brakes as being very flexible, but the Vainqueurs I put on my Motobécane are actually quite firm, and certainly brake as well as any other rim brake I have (including double-pivot Campagnolo.) Perhaps I had used cheaper Weinmann calipers in the past, or the brake pads were worthless. I dunno! But I am happy with them now.
Oh, one other data point. I have Paul centerpull calipers on my main touring bike, and they are mounted on posts. They are very stiff. They might brake a smidge better than the MAFACs and Weinmanns as a result.
Ive seen photos (unfortunately can’t recall where on the net I’ve seen them) of a set of mafac’s modified to use the Paul components springs and adjuster nuts. Don’t know if that would have been any upgrade in performance, but it looked damn good. I’ve owned a set of Paul racers, mafac competitions (late model ‘79) and a set of gran compe gc450’s. They all had roughly equal performance. They were all center-bolt mounted, but as you say, beyond some extra stiffness, and of course, a cleaner look, post mounted versions will perform roughly equally. Which of course, being 1:1, is a very similar performance to any quality single pivot side pull. My dura ace 7400’s perform no better overall than my gran compe’s or my Paul’s did, and all have roughly equal modulation. The side pulls only feel slightly more stiff, having shorter arms.