The bike in the photo is now disassembled, with the caliper adjuster 
transferred to the bigger Hoodoo. I'll try to get a higher-rez photo 
tomorrow and post it up.

I'd never heard of the widget either, until I embarked on the 
wheel-embiggening project somewhere around 2010. I figured that since I 
never ride offroad, a bigger wheel gets me a little farther for each 
rotation. In part, it was a quest for smoother tires; it's possible that 
had Compass been in business selling slick 26" tires back then, I might 
never have tried to go to 700c.

Fortunately for me, VooDoos were designed by Joe Murray, who also designed 
the early Konas. His design style happens to include brake bridges on canti 
frames placed pretty high, which gives you a lot of space for bigger wheels 
(I was running mostly 700c 33mm, and I still had space to go bigger). The 
only problem was the placement of the canti bosses, which is inherent in 
any canti 26" frame.

https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/us/en/mavic-2013-brake-caliper-adjusters/rp-prod33432

[image: iu.jpeg]

An extended googling revealed the existence of the Mavic caliper adjuster, 
which I'd just seen in a closed auction on eBay. It appeared on Mavic's 
site for nearly a decade. I then started going into every dealer in San 
Francisco's East Bay, asking for one. Every single dealer looked at me as 
if I was crazy ("I've never heard of such a thing; Mavic doesn't make them. 
Why would you even want something as stupid as that?"). I'd explain my 
project; they'd pull out the Mavic catalog, find the item and be 
dumbfounded ("well, I'll be damned...").

After over a year's searching, I walked into the sixteenth Mavic dealer - 
Montano Velo in North Oakland, then the home of the locally famous 
Broakland fixed-gear. I delivered my usual speech in a tone of despair and 
resignation (*do you have a Mavic caliper adjuster - it's a kind of canti 
brake booster with additional pivot posts*), expecting the usual answer 
(see above). Instead, the young'un behind the counter said:

"What, you mean like *these*?"

He then reached under the counter and pulled out a cardboard box with *six* 
of the things. I immediately paid him $25 for one; he told me that they'd 
been there for at least three years, and that I was the first person to 
even ask for one, forget buy one.

They are a niche part for a niche purpose, but they perform their niche 
task really well, at least in the rear. I'd be a little more nervous about 
relying on one for a front brake - the caliper does flex, and it might be 
unnerving to see on the front end. If you're committed to the 26"-to-700c 
idea, I think it makes more sense to mount a rigid cyclocross fork or 
sprung 29er fork in place of the 26" one.

Peter Adler
Berkeley, CA/USA

On Tuesday, June 8, 2021 at 3:24:03 AM UTC-7 Steven Sweedler wrote:

> Peter, do you have a close up of the Mavic caliper adjuster, never 
> heard/seen of them before. Thanks, Steve
>

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