Best brakes for 1960's roadracer?

[PerB]

I am restoring and upgrading a BSA Golden Fifty from around 1960. The bike will come out with correct paint, decals, but I am upgrading to better wheels, gears etc based period Campa Gran Sport/ Record equipment, and also fitting period GB aluminum stem and handlebar instead of the original steel parts.

The bike came with GB Sprite brakes originally. These brakes are very flimsy and weak. I cannot imagine getting much braking out of those. As I am not too concerned about absolute catalog correctness in my restoration I am looking for some better brakes from the early sixties. Are there any brakes from that period with outstanding performance? I am looking for brakes that came on the marked before say 1965 to keep the bike period correct.

 

[Martin Rattler]

Re:

I don’t think that any of the brakes from this period could be rated as outstanding, especially with steel rims but MAFAC Dural Forge/Racer have a good reputation; they are relatively inexpensive but not particularly pretty. CLB ALP Competition are nice but are getting to be expensive. I have Universal callipers (Type 51 and 68 respectively) with GB Superhood levers on a couple of my machines and I find this to be a good combination. Others of course will say that these are rubbish!

 

[mydadscondor]

MAFAC Dural Forge/Racer brakes get my vote, looks good and does the job!

 

[PerB]

Re: Re:

I don’t think that any of the brakes from this period could be rated as outstanding, especially with steel rims !

I have two set of wheels available with alloy rims, one set is natural alloy (Mafac) and one set is with anodized alloy (Nisi). Just to follow up, what is the best brake pads to be used with the above mentioned callipers and the alloy rims?


best regards

Per

 

[Martin Rattler]

Re:

With alloy rims you should find the braking performance to be reasonable. I don't use any particular brand or brake pads, I just tend to use whatever i have available but perhaps someone else can make some recommendations.

 

[PerB]

Re:

Thanks for everything, I placed an order for a Complete set of Mafac racer brakes on Ebay today. I will post some pictures of my bike when I an finishing the restoration.

 

[Martin Rattler]

Re:

We look forward to seeing it!

 

[Cefnbikie]

I have found Koolstop blocks to be excellent with modern brakes, with improved braking over other blocks, and I plan to use some with my RO Harrison build. I shall probably be using my GB Sport or Weinmann brake calipers, together with Koolstop Salmon blocks, such as these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Weinm ... 728861844? When I did a quick check of various UK retailers none carry stock of these blocks, and it may be cheaper to source them direct from US retailers who send overseas.