These are 80’s Dia Compe calipers. I’ve owned a number of old bikes with old brakes, including cantilevers that worked fine. These suck. They are -worse- than the old chromed steel rims on Schwinns! The rims are gray Worblers and I’ve adjusted them as close as I can with new (cheap) shoes but the braking power is still sketchy as hell. What more can I do?
by Imnothere1980
18 Comments
Premium outers/cables!
Different brake levers (other leverage), other pads, compressionless housing …
replace housing
lube pivots
change pads.
New cable inners and outer and probably pads if they are old they go hard and don’t stop so well.
at the expense of eating trough pads much faster you can grind up the rims just like trial bikers. But that would be the most destructive way. Otherways change housing, cables lube moving parts and perhaps even cables
replace cables (likely stretched out) and cable housing….consider replacing pads.
How new are those pads? Old stock gets hard as rocks.
I switched to jagwire. I’m never going back.
In order:
1. Check pads — if they are old they may be hard. Also certain pads just suck more than others. Partial to Kool Stop Salmon personally.
2. Check and clean brake surfaces. Rims can be somewhat contaminated or build up a glaze over time/become somewhat polished depending on the pads used. You can try using 180-220 grit and lightly scuffing up the rim surface.
3. Replace housing with compressionless, replace cables.
4. Lube cables, pivots, and spring contact points.
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You can’t. Single pivot calipers have to much flex in every direction.
What no one is saying on here… Change the pads yes, but for a different style. Get the type for modern road calipers, the pads that look like these ones suck big-time even when they’re brand new
Brake pads make a noticeable difference. Brake pads also have a shelf life (like tires). I recommend koolstop triple compound pads. Compressionless brake housing noticeably improves performance as well especially if you have a lot of friction in the old cables/housing – replace the inner wires while you’re at it. Make sure that your rims are true. Rough up/clean the sidewalls/braking surface of your rims with 60 grit sandpaper. Make sure that your brakes are properly adjusted.
There’s an old Trials hack where you take a grinder (or really coarse sandpaper, as I might recommend in this case) and texture the braking surface of the rim itself. Instantly 1000xs stronger braking force… provided you’ve already checked the pads and cables of course.
Did those other bikes that worked better have hard anodized rims?
KoolStop pads, the salmon-colored ones. It makes a world of difference.
The last time I encountered single-pivot brakes was on my old Fuji and they were so bad I was literally afraid to ride it in case I had a panic-stop situation. With KoolStop pads, they’re still not as powerful as good dual-pivot calipers or cantis, but I don’t feel unsafe any more.
That’s the first thing I do with a new (used) bike. No matter what else it may need, they all get KoolStop brake pads automatically.
I remember those old Diacomp Compe brake arches. Though there have been good ideas to help I never remember a good cure to the poor brake quality of those. If possible I would recommend going to a dual pivot style brake arches. Anything newer with a dual pivot would probably brake better. I had a set of those on an old Schwinn road bike which I replaced with 105 arches and the braking was 1000 times better.
Quality brake pads, all new stainless cables and proper adjustment.
Short armed, decent quality single pivot brakes can work absolutely flawlessly. It’s the long armed cheapo versions that are flawed by design and suffer from low quality materials and manufacturing that are responsible for the bad reputation.