Improving brakes on a very, very old Clubman

[barry2017]

My Clubman's original brakes were Raleigh's bizarre sidepulls that had a cable which had a nipple at both ends, with the barrel adjuster permanently attached (totally impossible to get nowadays).

I've been using it every day with these rubbish cheap sidepulls that came with a bike I bought a while ago, and while the bike sort of stopped, it was a bit scary if you had to stop in a hurry. Nearly faceplanted on my Saracen with its 80s U brakes after a couple of days riding the Clubman.

So I fitted a Tektro BMX caliper. My god, what a difference. It stops on a penny now, and doesn't look as bad as you'd think it would.

 

[WestofSouth]

Fitted Weinmann 730 to my Clubman. Also added a small ally flat plate to rear brake mount to prevent rotation around the small crossmember. Big improvement over original '48 Raleigh steel calipers.

 

[GarethPJ]

Second the 730s. I put them on my Coventry Eagle, they look fairly period and work very well into the bargain.

However I have to say block material makes more difference than caliper design with feeble calipers, especially on crappy rims. Sometimes it's the really cheap generic blocks that work really well, even if they don't last long. Could it be that BMX caliper came with blocks that suited the rims?

 

[alecw35]

Ive got loads of 730s Ive stripped from old bikes.

as well as other sizes such as 810, 890, 1000, 500, 605s.

I have 500s on my Raleigh Flyer. Its a 80s racer, has the smoother looking calipers. But the weimman pads are terrible. I ride with the brakes adjusted up. But not much happens when the levers pulled. Got 700c alloys on the bike.

Thinking of fitting some pads I got from a crummy kids bike. Is bound to stop ok then

 

[GarethPJ]

I have 500s on my Raleigh Flyer. Its a 80s racer, has the smoother looking calipers. But the weimman pads are terrible. I ride with the brakes adjusted up. But not much happens when the levers pulled. Got 700c alloys on the bike.

Thinking of fitting some pads I got from a crummy kids bike. Is bound to stop ok then

It largely depends on the rims, but the horrible cheap un-machined shiny rims common on budget racers from the eighties don't brake well with any pad material. When wet they don't brake at all.

The best pads I ever had on my Raleigh Criterium 12 were some very cheap Raleigh branded blocks from ebay. I've also found some grey fibrax ones that worked well on these rims.