corrado33

I've seen this system before, but I forget how it was setup. I also have no idea what it's called. Any help would be appreciated. It seems that it's a cable stop from the lever, but then a "straddle" cable if you will, gets bolted to it from the other side of the brakes.

What are they called? And can you point me in the direction of a picture of them set up correctly? Thanks!

Oh and I can't use the typical stem mounted cable stop or headset mounted cable stop because this particular bike has an 1" 1/4" headset/steerer tube diameter. (Yes, it's a weird one.)

corrado33

Nevermind... I figured it out. By chance I was holding the thing in the right orientation in the picture and I figured it out from that. Still have no idea what it's called. Such a weird system, works really well though. Although the thing is plastic, unsure if I'd trust my life to it riding down a hill.

Andrew R Stewart 

This brake enhancer is called a Force 40. I suspect you'll find their in use life to be less then ideal. With a third spring loaded pivot and the geometry reducing the pad/rim gap you likely end up with one pad rubbing much of the time. You'll stop, realign the spring tensions to recenter the pads and do again far sooner then reasonable. I do agree that the increase of mechanical advantage is a worthy goal but this method has it's issues.


Back in their day we removed many and installed casing stops and traditional straddle cables/pull up yokes. Sure the on paper "power" was less but the on trail function far better.


If you ever decide to try different brakes I'll take those Shimano cantis off your hands. That series is what I feel are the pinnacle of cantis. And your version is the finer finished one. Andy.

corrado33

Thanks for the info. Yeah this bike is actually super nice. It's an old gary fisher paragon in bright freaking dayglow orange. Unfortunately, the way it came in it was mounted with a 29er (rigid) fork with a 26" tire. Obviously we had to fix that. The only 26" rigid fork we had with a long enough steerer tube was an old cannondale aluminum fork with this style brake system. It also had an 1 & 1/4 steerer tube, but we had a headset that worked with it so it all worked out. It also came in with no-name brake levers and mismatched shifters with a no-name disc brake. And, last but not least, it came with a freaking 5 speed freewheel on the back with a matching 5 speed GRIP shifter... definitely not right. So I removed all of that, put proper Deore XT stuff on it with an 8 speed cassette. This bike is SUPER light and rides VERY well. Also upgraded the rims to modern ones since they didn't match as it came in. (Rear was a silver single walled rim, front was a black, disc brake wheel w/ a double walled rim. So I replaced both with black double walled nice rims since the disc brake wouldn't work with the replacement fork, and I didn't want to take the disc off.

I mention all of that because currently the front brakes don't rub, but that's only because the front rim is dead nuts true. You are correct, one side of the brake doesn't want to move, regardless of how I adjust the tension.

The rear brakes are the same style of cantilevers.

It's a very nice bike in a very cool color. And the replacement fork doesn't even look out of place.

Oh, and I found some NOS gumwall tires to put on it in the back of the shop. Fun fun bike.