Vexed by Dia Compe 960 cantis
11-27-21, 09:41 PM
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Vexed by Dia Compe 960 cantis
I am trying to set these up, and I am matching every reference I can find, as far as I can tell, but to no avail. They’re NOS 960 cantilevers, a 1985 Univega Alpina Uno. As pictured below, the caliper arms push against the rim — in other words, there is tension when I rotate the arm/pad away from the rim, and they snap back to the rim when I let go. This is exactly opposite of what should be happening, right? Do I just need wider posts?
(Sorry, not sure why the last pic is rotated below.)
(Sorry, not sure why the last pic is rotated below.)
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11-27-21, 09:55 PM
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I don't think you have the springs on the correct side.
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11-27-21, 10:15 PM
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Yeah, I think you’ve swapped L and R springs.
11-27-21, 10:29 PM
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11-27-21, 10:37 PM
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I agree that there is something wrong with your springs, but I am not convinced you have the R and L reversed. Is it possible that you have the wrong springs for those brakes?
Edit... no, seeing the photos @The_Golden_Boy just posted, I'd say you have the right springs. Can you rotate the brake (or the arm of the spring) around until the spring is pulling it away from the rim? That is, in your first photo, you would need to rotate that brake almost 360 degrees counterclockwise. That will tighten up the spring a lot. Note that in your photo the spring appears to go around three times, but in Bob's photos the springs go around four times. If you rotate them around, you'll have the four times. That's going to be a lot of tension, though.
Edit... no, seeing the photos @The_Golden_Boy just posted, I'd say you have the right springs. Can you rotate the brake (or the arm of the spring) around until the spring is pulling it away from the rim? That is, in your first photo, you would need to rotate that brake almost 360 degrees counterclockwise. That will tighten up the spring a lot. Note that in your photo the spring appears to go around three times, but in Bob's photos the springs go around four times. If you rotate them around, you'll have the four times. That's going to be a lot of tension, though.
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Last edited by rhm; 11-27-21 at 10:46 PM.
11-27-21, 11:57 PM
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I think I figured it out. It looks like on other bikes that use these brakes, the tension holes for the springs are on the inside of the seat stay, but the holes are on the outside of the seat stay on this bike. The additional rotation would allow me to use the brakes normally. Since I don’t have the option of moving the mounting holes, I went ahead and swapped the springs to opposite sides. You can see how the spring is now deformed, but each spring is, ahem, uniformly deformed. Seems to work fine now.
The other challenge with these brakes, which I just discovered, is that the straddle cable is very hard to find — double ended and about 25cm or thereabouts. I found a handful at Modern Bike and now have a few spares on the way.
Thanks for helping me work through this one, folks!
The other challenge with these brakes, which I just discovered, is that the straddle cable is very hard to find — double ended and about 25cm or thereabouts. I found a handful at Modern Bike and now have a few spares on the way.
Thanks for helping me work through this one, folks!
