bikemig 

they’re too expensive for a lot of people to use and learn how to hate, 😉

Cougrrcj

Yep, FREEWHEELS. ALL of my bikes have freewheels, the four road-ridden have 6-speed (two Ultra-spaced, two normal...) The Schwinn Woodlands is seven-speed, as it the Mutt. I'm borderline Clyde and have NEVER broken a freewheel hub axle.

browngw 

I like the beauty of the spoke protector. I have a small collection, expect to see more!

gugie 

1. Shorts with no padding. No diapers for me. When everyone switched from real chamois to synthetic, you could toss your shorts in the laundry and wear them the next day without rubbing something to make that bit of leather soft again. They they started adding padding, more, then more...not a bit of which added up to more comfort. Get a saddle that fits your sitz bones, you won't need that padding.
2. MAFAC centerpull brakes. Put some new pads in and adjust them properly, you've got braking power and modulation in a super light setup. Most people don't know how to set them up properly. They do have a lot more degrees of freedom of adjustment, but once you dial them in...coming around "that corner" at Eroica California, I felt I was one of the few people that had confidence.
3. Cloth handlebar tape finished with twine and multiple layers of shellac. Takes a lot longer to finish off, but it's a great look, and nearly indestructable. Once a year you can just wipe it clean with some alcohol, then add a new coat, looks brand new. I've got a couple of bikes that have 5-6 years of the same tape, still going strong and looking brand new.

bikingshearer 

That is a wonderfully genteel way to put it. There are four - count 'em, four - types of brake pad adjustment controlled by a single bolt (straight up/down, swivel up/down, in/out, and rotation). Controlled by a single bolt. One! What a major PITA. I used Mafac Competitions a very long time ago, and you are correct about how well they work once set up, You are also correct that I (and most others) have never learned the proper set up technique - when I had mine, getting them set up was more a matter a luck and perseverance in the face of an implacable foe than of skill or knowledge. And I never ever ever even considered doing anything that would have required readjusting them. Oh, and that world-famous Mafac squeal until they were toed in properly was something to behold. (BTW, the same is true of a Universal 51 (not a typo) rear brake. Near to wake the dead, it did.)

But Mafacs did and likely still do stop you. I will give you and them that. They just torture you in the set up process first.

scarlson 

YES!! I've switched back to hand-me-down Protogs wool because I'm smelly, and found that the lack of padding is actually better (for me).
But I am not learned in lore. What do you put in the leather to make it soft again? I tried some beeswax based stuff, but it is too sticky. Is it an oil you're meant to use?

gugie 

Someone with more memory than me will chime in, but I recall a special chamois cream could be rubbed in.

I had one pair before the synthetics started coming out. A couple of years ago I bought another pair just for Eroica and other cosplay events. I'll admit to wearing them maybe a dozen times, and have not washed them yet...

gugie 

The trick is to adjust them with the return springs disengaged, then make sure the pivots are level before doing anything else. I've brazed on posts to a couple dozen bikes, which not only eliminates a lot of those degrees of freedom, but also stiffens the entire assembly.

I have a Motobecane Le Champion I've been riding a lot lately with Competitions on it. It's a kind of "mule" bike to test stuff out on. I brazed some bottle bosses on it, didn't even bother to deflux (it's acting as a rust barrier right now). I've got some squeel in the brakes despite my adjustments, so I'll probably braze some posts on to see if that alone makes it go away. I've heard it helps a lot, and makes the brakes stiffer (feels more powerful). I've always thought this was probably the case, but now I'll have an A-B test. I'll report back when I'm done with it. Long weekend coming up...

scarlson 

Yeah that's what everyone says when I go searching for the answer. This is going to be like my René Herse restoration project, isn't it? I will need to buy a tin of vintage chamois cream and use expensive science equipment to reverse-engineer it and then be too tired to make more than a single tin for myself. I'll post the arcane formula here however it will require equipment and chemicals nobody has access to.
Some have accused me of cosplay, it's true! In cooler climes I can easily get a dozen rides from a pair of decent wool shorts before washing them.

abshipp 

I admire the commitment of people who shellac their handlebar tape.

I'd like to try it sometime, but it seems like I'm always switching parts out on my bikes

tgot 

The geared kids bikes from REI that I bought had really substantial bash guards for the rear derailleur. Must have been a problem!

dddd

Brazing on the posts does exactly what you said, it stiffens the arm's mounting, preventing the squishy splaying of the posts and thus critically preventing a toe-out condition from developing as braking force is increased.

As far as setting up all kinds of canti's or centerpulls having multi-adjustable pads, I have my own method that seems to work well right out of the gate.
I will center up the caliper bridge (if present) and then observe if both pads are adjusted identically in the in/out direction. I then check that the arms are centered relative to where the rim should be.
Next, I apply the brake lever until the pads just touch the rim, and secure this lever position using a toe strap.
Now I can loosen the nut on the carriage bolt and with one hand pinching the pad squarely against the rim in proper alignment I then tighten the nut. I may use a shim (like a credit card or a dime) under the leading (facing rear) end of the pad to effect any degree of toe-in that is needed. This then gets repeated for the other pad.
On some such brakes there may be a tapered washer that needs to be rotated to match the correct pad contact angle or toe-in. I always lubricate the threaded and washer surfaces first!!!
All this seems to make the process easy, stress-free and repeatable. Different brakes require adaptations to this because of their specific hardware, and each bike has it's own minimum of toe-in required.

One more thing to know is that the effect on toe-in of the braking force is opposite between the front and rear brakes, since the outward splay of the posts is pointing in opposite directions between the front and rear brakes! So where front brakes may tend to squeal more as the lever force increases, the opposite is true of the rear brake where any initial squeal tends to go away as lever force increases.
In either case though, rigidly-mounted studs (and/or the addition of a bridge between studs) will greatly reduce any tendency for the toe-in to change as the braking force is increased.



Lastly, where any kind of rim brake has less than ideal rim contact (i.e. with the pad not meeting the rim squarely),, one can use an accelerated break-in procedure either by riding in wet/dirty conditions or by applying the brake while rotating the wheel forcefully forward with heavy belt-sander paper shaping the pad to the rim as shown. I do this all the time for quick tune-ups to bikes destined for any "wholesale"-like transaction, in lieu of replacing pads or of more time-consuming pad setup. Also for my own use during evaluation rides of used-bike purchases.

SJX426 

I believe our own rootboy supplly them or did to Rene Herse. I have a couple of pair left from purchasing back in the early 70's.
Tire Savers on Flickr

they work well on single pivot brakes, even non-nuted. You have to be creative by hammering down the loop to be a washer configuration.
PA132343 on Flickr

Then either replace a washer or stackit on the front of the caliper.
PA132334 on Flickr
PA132335 on Flickr
PA132337 on Flickr

BFisher

Aerotech Designs has a nice minimally padded short. Pretty thin, and much less diaper-like. You can also get unpadded shorts from them.

I am a fan of the MAFAC centerpull as well. Just excellent brakes.

Tried the shellac method years back and just couldn't warm to it. It often looks wonderful, but the feel left me wanting the finish off. I like cotton tape a lot, but prefer it just plain old. Longevity suffers, of course.

noglider 

Being rebelliously frugal, I never bought chamois cream. I used Vaseline or hemorrhoid ointment, and it seemed to work fine. I bet nearly any oil would do.

nlerner

I think on Eroica rides, you're required to use olive oil.

Salamandrine 

BITD, when chamois were made from chamois, people made their own chamois butter concoctions. I remember using a mix of Noxzema and aloe vera gel. Not sure if Noxzema even still exists.

+1 on the padded shorts. I don't like them either. But I guess for this thread I should say: Unpadded shorts, everybody hates them, but I think they are great!

scarlson 

AH! I have one! SPLASH BAR TAPE! Nothing like matching splash tape on captain and stoker bars. Tandems are goofy anyhow, so why the hell not.


Also: front drive tandems! Because front shifts shouldn't have to be some game of call-and-response. With front-drive, the captain is more in-charge of everything, leaving the stoker free to faff about and instagram the countryside while the captain messes with the derailleur, having a clear view of what's going on.

noglider 

I don't get it. What's the advantage? I don't need my stoker's help when I shift the front derailleur.

hokiefyd 

I think this was mentioned once earlier: 3x drivetrains (combined with 7/8 speed on the back). I've ridden a few bikes with more sprockets on the back, but most of my bikes have 3x drivetrains and sometimes, what works just works. Wide, inexpensive chains, and a large cassette sprocket that actually fits on a small dinner plate!

I also like the MAFACs on my Peugeot. I think I did get lucky with the setup on these. Not having the neato original pad holders, I have some cheap Altus CT-91 canti shoes in those brakes and they actually stop pretty well. I do get some squeal if they're wet. This is most apparent when I bring the bike from my conditioned basement out into a humid summer evening. I'll get squeal for the first 30-45 seconds of actual brake application. But they quiet down after some use.

scarlson 

On a rear-drive tandem, the derailleur's just so far back that I can't see what's going on. With the stoker's legs acting as a dampener, I can't feel the front shift either. So I need some coordination. I'm always asking what's going on. Did I make the shift? Can we put power down again or will it crunch? Call, response. With front-drive, I still can't feel it, but I can see it. It works for me, anyway.

People also say front-drive makes the crossover BB last longer because it's not getting pulled asymmetrically resulting in thrust loads on the ball bearings. I don't know about that, but I'm inclined to believe it after seeing a Hadley sealed BB seize up on my dad's rear-drive Santana on tour. And the drivetrain doesn't grind when I cross it up and ride big/big or little/little, which I'm more likely to do on a tandem. It's all these little things that make it a winner, but it's really hard to make a case for. I didn't even try it until I got my Jack Taylor, which came that way. And everything was just a lot better!

Even my stokers with thick calves don't get chain tattoo, so I think I've got things set up properly. Or maybe that's just another advantage of biopace: less flop and whip in the long chain of a front drive tandem.

Bill in VA

I always found the easiest way to adjust the toe and pads on Mafac Racers was to wrap a strip of inner tube around the rim at the rear of the pad, then use a toe clip strap to tightly pull the brake lever. Then you loosened the bolt on the post pads, gave another good squeeze of the brake lever and tightened the strap a bit more and retightend the adjustment bolts. Unstrap the lever and bingo, uniform toe-in and alignment. Fine tune with the barrel adjuster on the lever. If the toe was not enough you added a layer of inner tube. I learned that from the shop where I bought my 1973 Peugeot UO-8. They gave a short class to new bike owners on how to use the Mafac tool kits that came with all new Peugeots.

Here is a great resource for fans of all types of Mafac brakes. https://www.flickr.com/photos/mafac_...57676387624323

gugie 

Note to self: ask the wife for a gas chromatography setup for Christmas...

Reynolds 

Some really old timers told me that too.

Cougrrcj

My wife was a GC analyst for 18 years in a paint/coatings company research center. Her specialty was beverage can coating -- Checking the 'bake' or cure of the interior coating for any residual volitiles, etc... Ball can, Metal Container (Miller brewing)... she had a beer can collection from all over the world lining the walls of her lab...