Brakes on an old bike



Status
Not open for further replies.
G

George Humperdi

Guest
I bought an old (27" ?) frame to build up as a fixed gear. It works great, except one problem. It
has no brakes. I bought as an empty frame and therefore have modernized all the bits on it. When I
went to install new brakes, I found they do not reach the rim, even with the pads at the bottom of
the adjustment slots. I don't particularly want to have a new tube welded in for the right spacing.
My question is, are there any conversion kits available? (bolt on brackets, etc.) I am wanting to
upgrade this to a commuter bike, backpedaling is fine for the open road, but isn't fast enough while
dodging people.

Thanx,

Dan

PS - I'm running 700c tires, in case it's not a given.
 
Get long-reach brakes (which is what I did) or use a drop bolt.

(Get in touch w/ me if you want to buy a cheap pair of long-reach calipers. You didn't include an
E-mail address in your post.)

Mike Yankee

(Address is munged to thwart spammers. To reply, delete everything after "com".)
 
"George Humperdink" wrote:

> I bought an old (27" ?) frame to build up as a fixed gear.
> PS - I'm running 700c tires, in case it's not a given.

I followed this advice for doing the same thing you want to do:
<http://www.sheldonbrown.com/home-drop.html>

Roy H. Drinkwater
 
"George Humperdink" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I bought an old (27" ?) frame to build up as a fixed gear. It works great, except one problem. It
> has no brakes. I bought as an empty frame and therefore have modernized all the bits on it. When I
> went to install new brakes, I found they do not reach the rim, even with the pads at the
bottom
> of the adjustment slots. I don't particularly want to have a new tube
welded
> in for the right spacing. My question is, are there any conversion kits available? (bolt on
> brackets, etc.) I am wanting to upgrade this to a commuter bike, backpedaling is fine for the open
> road, but isn't fast
enough
> while dodging people.
>
> Thanx,
>
> Dan
>
> PS - I'm running 700c tires, in case it's not a given.
>
>

You could get the correct length of brake caliper. Recently, new road bikes have moved to a
single-size format but there are still many longer-armed brakes available. What frame is it?

--
Andrew Muzi http://www.yellowjersey.org Open every day since 1 April 1971
 
On Mon, 13 Jan 2003 18:40:44 -0500, George Humperdink wrote:

> I bought an old (27" ?) frame to build up as a fixed gear. It works great, except one problem. It
> has no brakes. I bought as an empty frame and therefore have modernized all the bits on it. When I
> went to install new brakes, I found they do not reach the rim, even with the pads at the bottom of
> the adjustment slots. I don't particularly want to have a new tube welded in for the right
> spacing. My question is, are there any conversion kits available? (bolt on brackets, etc.) I am
> wanting to upgrade this to a commuter bike, backpedaling is fine for the open road, but isn't fast
> enough while dodging people.
>
Don't even think of riding on the road without a brake. Not a good idea. Older good road bikes, from
the early '70s and before, often had enough clearance to use either 27" clinchers (the only
clinchers we could get, then) or sew-ups, which were the same size as 700c. My first road bike was
set up this way, and I had both types of wheels. The brakes would adjust enough for either -- and
you could even put fenders on.

But modern brakes, and frames, don't have nearly that much room, and the brakes are not designed
to work with old frames. You can get an old, long-reach brake in either side-pull or center-pull
that will do fine. Or, you can get (at more cost) a "drop bolt" that will allow you to attach tbe
brake closer to the wheel. I made my own drop bolt years ago when I went to smaller brakes, and it
worked OK.

But that is for the rear only. Isn't the fork clearance smaller than in the rear?  CAn you fit your
new brake on the fork and adjust it to fit? Usually you can, with a bit of work. I used a
wedge-shaped washer once to get a couple more millimeters (angle the front of the brake down). It
probably stressed the hanger bolt some, but no harm came of it.

The drop bolts, especially for dual-pivot brakes, are so expensive that a good long-reach pair of
brakes would be more economical, and better structurally.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not _`\(,_ | certain, and as
far as they are certain, they do not refer to (_)/ (_) | reality. -- Albert Einstein
 
On Mon, 13 Jan 2003, George Humperdink wrote:

> I bought an old (27" ?) frame to build up as a fixed gear. It works great, except one problem. It
> has no brakes. I bought as an empty frame and therefore have modernized all the bits on it. When I
> went to install new brakes, I found they do not reach the rim, even with the pads at the bottom of
> the adjustment slots.

Dan,

There's a good chance that your bike originally took centerpull brakes, which have considerably
longer reach than practically any quality modern sidepull. See if you could find a pair used
(they'll be tres cheap) and give them a try.

Trent
 
third hand-loose screws provided me with an in-expensive set of calipers. Go to www.loosescrews.com
to take a look.

brad/texas
 
"George Humperdink" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
> I bought an old (27" ?) frame to build up as a fixed gear. It works great, except one problem. It
> has no brakes. I bought as an empty frame and therefore have modernized all the bits on it. When I
> went to install new brakes, I found they do not reach the rim, even with the pads at the bottom of
> the adjustment slots. I don't particularly want to have a new tube welded in for the right
> spacing. My question is, are there any conversion kits available? (bolt on brackets, etc.) I am
> wanting to upgrade this to a commuter bike, backpedaling is fine for the open road, but isn't fast
> enough while dodging people.
>
> Thanx,
>
> Dan
>
> PS - I'm running 700c tires, in case it's not a given.

I did this for an 1972 Coppi frame. I ended up buying some crappy side-pull BMX brakes. I wouldn't
worry too much about having really good brakes on the fixed though because you learn to use a little
breaking to slow you quickly. If I was doing it again, I'd buy those long-pulls for $30 a pop.
Probably worth it for the easy installation alone.
 
On 14 Jan 2003 20:54:35 GMT, [email protected] (B2723m) wrote:

>third hand-loose screws provided me with an in-expensive set of calipers. Go to www.loosescrews.com
>to take a look.

Or go to the same site and do a search for "drop bolt". You'll find a range of expensive bolts to
reposition your current calipers.

jeverett3<AT>earthlink<DOT>net http://home.earthlink.net/~jeverett3
 
"David L. Johnson >" <David L. Johnson <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]... <snipped>.
> >
> Don't even think of riding on the road without a brake. Not a good idea. Older good road bikes,
> from the early '70s and before, often had enough clearance to use either 27" clinchers (the only
> clinchers we could get, then) or sew-ups, which were the same size as 700c. My first road bike was
> set up this way, and I had both types of wheels. The brakes would adjust enough for either -- and
> you could even put fenders on.
>
> But modern brakes, and frames, don't have nearly that much room, and the brakes are not designed
> to work with old frames. You can get an old, long-reach brake in either side-pull or center-pull
> that will do fine. Or, you can get (at more cost) a "drop bolt" that will allow you to attach tbe
> brake closer to the wheel. I made my own drop bolt years ago when I went to smaller brakes, and it
> worked OK.
>
> But that is for the rear only. Isn't the fork clearance smaller than in the rear? CAn you fit your
> new brake on the fork and adjust it to fit? Usually you can, with a bit of work. I used a
> wedge-shaped washer once to get a couple more millimeters (angle the front of the brake down). It
> probably stressed the hanger bolt some, but no harm came of it.
>
> The drop bolts, especially for dual-pivot brakes, are so expensive that a good long-reach pair of
> brakes would be more economical, and better structurally.
>
> --
>
> David L. Johnson
>
> __o | As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are
not
> _`\(,_ | certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to (_)/ (_) | reality. --
> Albert Einstein

Too late, I already ride it on the rural backroads around my place. I just don't commute or ride in
town with it. After looking at Sheldon Brown's page, and other fixed-gear pages, I've decided to
just throw a front brake on it and a faux brake hood (from the rear station on a tandem?) on the
right side. Considering this is where most stopping power, and the brake I already use the most on
my other bike, is created, I don't think I will have to worry about a rear brake. Thanks for the
advice, though. I appreciate all who have posted.

Dan
 
Status
Not open for further replies.