My experience, which is extensive but not necessarily definitive, is that centerpulls can be as good as other types of brakes, but that they are not by any means necessarily better, and that they have been, IME, sometimes worse. IOW, the type of brake is less important than the quality of it and hardware, and the quality of the setup.
Two anecdotes: first: I used a Dura Ace centerpull (rebranded Tourney, if my source was right, who said that Shimano produced these for about 6 months circa 1976 until they decided to jump on the Campy sidepull bandwagon. At any rate, I'd used these on a commuter (or rather, just one, the front, since it was a fixie) and found them excellent. But when I used the same brake on my erstwhile Motobecane Grand Record grocery getter, I found that slowing from a fast downhill roll with a heavy load was fraught with peril -- salmon pads; squeezing harder didn't get more braking. I replaced it with a dual pivot and felt much more secure. Second: Preliminary: "good" qualifying "brake" involves not only friction force for a given hand pressure, but also ultimate braking force, and also modulation. Top line V brakes are as powerful as anything not hydraulic, but they don't modulate as well as other types. Ditto cable disks. OTOH, many low profile cantis are just weak, and the Road version of the BB7 that I used was as useless, no more and no less, as the professionally set up Mafac cantis (longer arm Tandem version in front) on the Herse (yes, salmons). Point of anecdote: in the light of the above, the *best* brakes I ever used were IRD high profile cantis set up by Riv staff on my erstwhile Sam Hill: as powerful as V brakes, modulated better than anything else I've used. Overall point: don't sweat the kind of brake unless what you are using is ineffective. Save you Xmas points for something useful like leather or tweed fender flaps (or a pair of $500 plastic sunglasses). *Juuuuust* kidding about the flaps and glasses, but you get my point. On Mon, Nov 23, 2015 at 3:48 PM, drew <drewbeckme...@gmail.com> wrote: > so. it's nearing the holiday season. people are asking me what i want, and > this is usually where i ask for bikey stuff, but currently the bikes are > all in pretty good shape. not a lot to work on. no accessories needed etc. > not a bad situation to be in. after consistent prodding for gift ideas, i > have reverted back to an old idea of switch the sam over from silver > sidepulls to centerpulls. far from a necessary swap, but something to > think about and do. my understanding is that the good ones can stop better > than sidepulls and the aesthetics are nicer in my opinion. > > ive only ever run canti's, sidepulls or cheap vintage centerpulls. so, > what do you like and why? im only familiar with the paul racers and the VO > ones? what else is out there i should consider. ORRR is this not worth it > at all and i should ask for money ill spend on groceries and paying bills. > > also, for context. this is for a sam running 700x50 tires w/o fenders. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- Resumes, LinkedIn profiles, bios, and letters that get interviews. By-the-hour resume and LinkedIn coaching. Other professional writing services. http://www.resumespecialties.com/ www.linkedin.com/in/patrickmooreresumespec/ Patrick Moore Alburquerque, Nouvelle Mexique, Vereinigte Staaten ************************************* *The point which is the pivot of the norm is the motionless center of a circumference on the rim of which all conditions, distinctions, and individualities revolve. *Chuang Tzu *Stat crux dum volvitur orbis.* Carthusian motto -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
