I think it depends on a variety of things including the rims you intend to use and various other things related to where and how you ride. I purchased a non-canti 650b Sam Hillborne in Spring 2017 and ride in Vancouver, BC. We get a lot of rain and we have a lot of hills.I first tried using HED Belgium Plus rims with Silver branded R559s and while I had no problem with the brakes engaging, I found that the brake arms flexed enough while braking going down hills or mountain roads to creep up and make contact with the tires in the front.
After a few months of attempting (myself and via bike shops) to adjust the brake pads to not contact the tires in the front and having no luck, I swapped the front Silver brake for a Paul Racer. After another few months of having the same problem, I had my wheels rebuilt using Pacenti Brevet rims, which a few mm taller brake track than the HEDs. After this, I found that the pads wouldn't run into the tire if adjusted just right, but would still creep worryingly close to the tires when braking hard. This resulted in me having to adjust the pads every few rides and probably not riding the bike as much as would otherwise given how much I enjoy it. This fall I threw in the towel, brought the bike to a frame builder and had them weld Compass Center Pull bosses on the bike. It's been great since, but if I were to do it all over again I would have just purchased a model with canti bosses. In any event, if you don't need to brake too hard or if you're using a rim with a really tall brake track, like an Alex Rims DM18 or something, you should probably be fine. Cheers, Mike On Tuesday, December 4, 2018 at 4:40:17 AM UTC-8, Eric Daume wrote: > > While I'm hemming and hawing over Reid's Joe Appaloosa for sale, I find my > eye also wandering over to the new MIT Hilsens. The sizing looks good, love > the color, nary an extra tube to be found (though I'm warming up to the > extra tubes). But, it uses the long reach R559 type brake. I've used this > brake (and the DC Mod 750) on previous 650b conversions, and it hasn't been > a great experience. They work OK in the dry, but when the rims are wet, the > stopping power was terrible. As a test, I sprayed my front rim with my > water bottle, and the R559 brakes took twice the distance to stop as my V > brake equipped Clem. That was with salmon pads on the R559. Mountain bike > style levers on both bikes. > > So, does anyone have a setup that works in the wet for long reach brakes? > > Thanks, > > Eric > who should just stick to my rule of "V brakes or discs or pass it by" > -- 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 https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
