The Vintage Brakes Thread

[dirttorpedo]

I've searched the forum for threads on vintage brakes - particularly Mafac "racers" with little luck. I'm in the process of "upgrading" the brakes on my Ellis Briggs from what I believe are second generation Dura Ace to some iteration of Mafac "racers" I picked up cheap on ebay from someone in France.

The racers seem to be well thought of online and I remember as a kid in the 70's people saying that center pull brakes were superior to side pulls. I've definitely seen this with the various Diacompe, Shimano and Weinman examples I've ridden in the past 5 years. Its been so long since I've ridden center pulls that I can't recall how they worked. I'm also curious if the center pulls made by Shimano, Diacompe, Weinman, etc. BITD were any good?

I see that the guys at Rene Herse have basically reissued the Mafac raid brake and that Diacompe has the 610 and other models for sale and that Paul Components has their homage to the racer for sale. I was also pleased to see that Rene Herse sells all of the small parts for center pulls so that you can rebuild/refresh your original pair.

Anyhow please weigh in with your opinions and experiences.

 

[mdvineng]

Rim surface, block material and setup are the critical areas. The rest, is just leverage and mechanical stability.

 

[pigman]

Up until a couple of years ago I used weinmann centrepulls on a hack bike. I used modern blocks, the bolt-on (not stud) types found on cheap MTBs. In all honesty the stopping power was as good as modern dual pivots. However it was all or nowt braking (which is how I ride anyway). The modulation or feathering action was poor

 

[non-fixie]

I love MAFAC "RACER" brakes. Have them on quite a few bikes.

A few tidbits on these brakes:

- Until the Campagnolo brakes appeared in the late sixties and the "gruppo" concept was born, MAFAC was the default brake in the pro peloton (except for the Italians, who would use their Universal Mod. 61 counterpart)
- riders from the low countries would often combine MAFAC calipers with Universal levers
- As late as 1977 the TdF was won with MAFAC brakes
- The Alex Singer shop in Paris still builds new bikes with them
- Koolstop makes (expensive but nice) brake pads especially for them (in both black and salmon)

Me, I like to combine them with Campagnolo Ergo levers on my light touring bikes:

 

[dirttorpedo]

Rim surface, block material and setup are the critical areas. The rest, is just leverage and mechanical stability.

I've been using koolstop salmon pads with decent quality vintage alloy rims and shimano 600 or dura ace levers and their respective calipers with uninspiring results. Definitely better than the Diacompe's my wife's bike came with, but nothing to inspire confidence descending in the mountains.

 

[andyscherer]

Personally I love the Mafac aesthetics. With the right pads and levers they do a fine job. That said, the Ultegra 6600 dual pivot brakes on my Mercian perform far better than Mafacs ever could. I can live with the compromise.

 

[legrandefromage]

I have some Mafac and find them very flexy

Am building something with Weinmanns soon. Will find out how good/ bad/ spudoinky they are.

 

[Old Ned]

I'm sure that over the years you've had lots of different lever/stirrup combinations but it may be the combination of the STI levers with the Mafac stirrups that makes them not so good. Have you tried them with period levers?

 

[legrandefromage]

the leverage and pull are exactly the same, its the brakes themselves, they flex like a flexy thing

 

[dirttorpedo]

I have some Mafac and find them very flexy

Am building something with Weinmanns soon. Will find out how good/ bad/ spudoinky they are.

That's disappointing to hear. Well mine showed up in the mail and I've torn them down for a good cleaning. I'll mount them up when I've put them back together and see if they are any better than the Dura Ace. I've also taken the plunge on some command shifters and those will go on as well. Hopefully they make the bike better.

I suppose this is why Jan Heine and others say the post mount version of the Mafac's are best - probably removes a lot of flex from the system.