Bianchigirll 

OH I see I have an Ally

noglider 

I'm with you, too, bianchigirll. They're good brakes, and I have a set not yet installed, but I'm trying to hold off using them. Single pivot sidepulls are the simplest brake around, and you never have to adjust the pads after the first time.

I have a feeling dual pivots solved a problem no one really had. Or they compensated for the fact that people don't know how to center single pivots. Not that they're bad, but the change seems unnecessary to me.

MPC Biker

less talk more photos

canyoneagle

Here https://www.rivbike.com/products/show...outh-73/15-151
or here https://store.velo-orange.com/index.p...ch-brakes.html

If you want to stay with a classic style, these work on both recessed or nutted mounting.

-holiday76

purdy! I'm sure someone already mentioned this, but you're dt cable stops are technically flipped I think. Barrels should be down from the screw on the opposite side. At least that's how I've always seen/done it. I'm sure it works just a well that way.

atmdad

IMO, I think they are sexier so I want to swap out the the old dia-compes, that and I bent an arm on the front brake in a somewhat nasty crash a little over a week ago.

Zaphod Beeblebrox 

actually I think you're the first to mention it. I couldn't figure out which side was for which when I installed em over a year ago

atmdad, I didn't drill this frame out, it was made for recessed brakes

atmdad

^ just an obscure Airplane reset

JohnDThompson 

Front: https://www.biketoolsetc.com/index.cg...em_id=TK-800AF

Rear: https://www.biketoolsetc.com/index.cg...em_id=TK-800AR

$14/caliper -- can't be beat!

frantik

i think ideally youre supposed to mate dual pivot brakes with levers which have a return spring in them

Grand Bois

Have you seen them in person? I have a set on a beater. They're crudely finished, have no quick release and are wrong sided. They don't need a quick release if you use levers that have them and the wrongsidedness can be a plus on some frames. I suppose they could be stripped and polished to a better finish. They work very well.

3speed

^ I didn't even notice they were "wrong" sided! That's so awesome! I've been looking for some logically sided long reach brakes for a while, and I may actually try just what you suggested. Polish them to a better finish. To me, it only makes sense to use brakes that are "wrong sided" considering my right hand is the one still on the brake when I'm signalling. I'd rather that be my dominate brake as well. If I have to stop hard in that situation, I'm probably in trouble either way, but at least I can slow down a little if I have my hand on the front brake.

Would you say they stop better than a decent pair of single pivots? These would be going on the bike that's going to get a lot of miles this summer, so I want something that has a good bit of stopping power.

atmdad

I bit the bullet an ordered up a set of these,


and will follow the tips provided here and at SB.

*****
whoa, that's a big pic

Grand Bois

I say that wrongsidedness can be a plus because a lot of British and French bikes that originally had centepulls have the rear brake cable stops on the drive side. I happen to prefer my front brake connected to the left lever, but the bike that has those brakes is the other way.


I'm not ready to say that they stop better than any of my single pivots, but I'm still using the original pads. Be sure to get the matching levers with quick releases from the same place.

Here's an example of when wrongsided sidepulls are an advantage:

JohnDThompson 

Yes, I have two sets. I agree they're probably not appropriate for a concourse bike, but to replace nasty stamped steel calipers on my daughter's Raleigh Sports they work fine -- better than original, in fact.

squirtdad

My experience is that on the same bike, the dual pivot ultegra brakes have a large improvement in stopping power as compared to the ultegra 600 tri-color (new pads both sets of brakes)... YMMV

shorthanded

meh. i disagree. not a tektro fan, and i DO like new shimanos a lot- they're great brakesets. but 'tektros are better than any single pivots' is a patently false statement, unless of course you have some sort of evidence to that effect. i suspect not. particularly from the aspect of feel. tektros are very effective at making a good bike feel like a cheap POS, far as i'm concerned.

old pads? yup.. those can suck. but single pivot brakes can be JUST as powerful, and feel great. sounds like you mighta run into more than a few that were either badly set up, or had a passel of bikes with weinmann centerpulls...

3speed

I haven't actually used Weinmann centerpulls myself, but I thought some were supposed to be good stopping brakes? I've used the cheaper "universal" or whatever centerpulls and they'll stop you better than almost every single pivot brake I've used. I've only had one pair of single pivots that will easily brake hard enough to flip you over if you want them to. Is there a trick I'm missing to setting them up?

mazdaspeed

Dp brakes are designed to have more leverage, it is that simple. They also flex less in general.

Grand Bois

I can't agree with you. The Tektros on my Raleigh Competions are far superior to any of my other brakes and my other brakes are 600 Tricolor, Dura Ace, Super Record and MAFAC Competitions. They all have Kool Stops. The Heshey Racing V brakes on my daughter's MTB grab harder, but modulation sucks.

I don't have trouble centering any of my brakes. It's not difficult.

shorthanded

okay. it might be that simple to you, but they still feel like dook to me. hopefully this doesn't lead into a frame flex discussion as well.. 'cause i don't mind flex there either. lemme explain what i mean via 3 speed's question.

oh.. i'm just joshing about weinmanns- i use centerpulls m'self, and i love them. but i think that there are major differences of modern and vintage (i.e. dual vs. single pivot) brakes in their setup. i always used to (and actually continue to) set up single pivots fairly close to the rim. i think a lot of modern brakes get set up to hit the rim slowly- as pads are toeable and tapered- so you give them wider berth on the rim, and can ease them in. they have a built in 'mechanical modulation control'-- and single pivot modulation comes from a mixture of the the caliper flex and the give in the system- including the levers and the cabling all combining-- so if you set them up LOOSE-- they go all mushy feeling-- but if you set them up to engage early, as you pull harder, you get great mechanical gains, even with all the 'slop'. even the levers let you get better torque-- or at least it sure seems like they have a greater arc to let you get a 'handful of brake' so you can work them with arm strength-- not just mechanical leverage.

ultimately-- both work well-- but i'm primarily hasslin' mazdaspeed for untethered qualifiers they both have little intricacies of setup that make either work well. i clearly prefer muscle powered brakes and snappy levers from strong springs- there's probably some reason that that paradigm went out of fashion-- but i surely didn't agree to it.

mazdaspeed

Honestly the thought of single pivot brakes being better is pure curmudgeonry and is flat out wrong. At best they're almost as good as crappy dual pivot brakes, but a well set up pair of good dual pivot brakes is significantly more powerful than any set of side pull single pivot brake calipers, period.

Grand Bois

You can convert any Tektro brake to nutted by using the hardware from those $14 800s that Bike Tools Etc is selling. Somebody posted a link to a site selling those brakes for $17 a set not long ago.

thook

Here's a question for you fellas not terribly cozy with DP's......or, I guess, anyone really.....

I got some for my Trek 614 because I wanted to run 700c. The original DiaCompe 500's are maxed on on their reach. I read where many folks tend to believe this offers unneccessary and undesirable flex leading to poorer braking. True? Whether or not it is, would DP's....ie, the Tektro long reach R538's.......what I purchased.....offer better braking than the 500's at their max reach? Given equal pads and equal levers......Dia Compe aero levers and Kool stop salmon?

Puget Pounder

I'll have to back mazda on this one. Although I can set a pair of single pivots to stop on a dime just like a pair of dual pivots, it doesn't mean that SPs are inherently better. It means that they can do what DP's do too. To some people like noglider, DPs were an unecessary invention, but to say that SP brakes are better is just wrong. Too many times in this forum people equate "good enough for me" to "better than."

For me, I feel a difference and prefer DPs.