Originally Posted by
GamblerGORD53
LOL. 2 weeks ago I rode 120 MILES in 12Hr12 min with the tour bike at 78 lb. BEAT THAT sucker. LOL.
Two weeks ago I went for a lovely couple hour ride with a <20 pound bike and spent the remaining 10 hours playing with my 6 month old child. Can’t wait until his neck is strong enough to stoke the tandem in another 6-9 months.
Originally Posted by
smd4
After using dual-pivots, yeah...older sidepulls are definitely as bad as I thought--or seem to think.
I like my brakes with the stock pads, but maybe I'll swap some Kool Stop salmons this weekend just to see what all the fuss is about.
The salmon pads made more of a difference for me in the rain than dry, though I am happy with their dry performance as well. Of course my first experience with them was coming off of 10 year old, hard as rock, 90’s Shimano pads, so it wasn’t hard to improve.
To the OP, as stated above, well dressed housing and dual pivot brakes are they key if you want to improve stopping. The pads will help, but you’re going to be at a disadvantage with the original side pulls. All that said, I rode 60’s center pulls followed by 80’s side pulls (though good ones) for a long time. New ones work better, but the old ones do still stop as long as you’re respectful of their capabilities.