Advice of fitting new brakes to old bike pls -bolt length

[Bianchiblaster]

Hi, I have short wheel base Claud Butler tandem and want to fit better (dual pivot) brakes to the front. However the distance from face of the brake to the other side of the stem (including space for a nut) is about 50mm. No modern brakes have a bolt that long. However, I heard that you can get longer female nuts which screw over the bolt, (though I might have to drill out a the hole a bit). Does anyone know where to get these long nuts? Or is there a better solution, e.g. is it possible to change the length of the bolt itself by dissassembling the brakes? (The bike does have retro brakes now but they don't hold a tandem going downhill fast in the wet very well!) Thanks for any suggestions! javascript:emoticon('')

 

[Aqua]

I'd take this to a LBS for them to have a look. Drilling out the brake hole in your forks may weaken it and on a tandem you wouldn't want the brake making a bid for freedom. There is a tandem specialist called Tandemania who may have special tandem parts to upgrade your machine

 

[hamster]

You can get an adapter bolt that retrofits into the calliper. Try SJS cycles.