White leather brake blocks

[Snusmumriken]

I’ve just bought a bike with chromed steel wheel rims, which I don’t intend to change. The last time I had chrome wheels was on a Gitane bike in the 1980s. In wet, or even damp, conditions, ordinary black or red rubber brake blocks had no grip at all. Following advice from the books of the time, I got my local bike shop to source some white leather brake blocks, which were superb. Even back then they were already a bit passé, and my memory of them is now a bit hazy. I think they were made of white chrome-tanned horse leather, folded and stitched into brake-block shape and fixed into the usual shoes.

Does anyone else remember these blocks? The manufacturer, possibly? Even a photo, or - heaven-sent miracle - some NOS?! I’ve become pretty handy over the years, and am thinking of trying to make my own, if I can just verify how they were constructed.

PS - I am aware of the later Fibrax blocks with leather insert. By all accounts they were/are a doubtful advantage, whereas the things I’m talking about really did work on chrome.

 

[Jonny69]

Don’t know about white leather blocks (they’re before my time) but I can confirm Fibrax blocks don’t make a huge difference. I guess they don’t chatter as much on bendy brake calipers like Weinmanns

 

[bikeworkshop]

Chrome rims are very hard, and incredibly slippery in the wet.

Leather blocks were sold as better than rubber - we think it was marketing. you don't really want a material that absorbs water on your brakes.

You could design and fabricate a material to outperform leather in this situation
- that's exactly what quality modern blocks were -

but no-one makes quality blocks to work on chrome Rims now - because if you wanted better braking, you'd use alloy Rims.

I think the only situation where leather has the edge is in some style of walking boots.

If you want to increase the braking power while keeping the steel rims, fit better calipers and nicer levers, and the softest blocks you can find.

 

[jim haseltine]

I used some leather blocks on a hack bike back in the late 70s. From what I remember, they were one piece of very thick pale grey/white leather, advertised/rumoured to be rhinoceros hide (which I doubted as even then they were a protected animal). They were longer than most blocks sold at the time and the shoes looked to be on the cheap side of things, appearing to be almost hand made from tin plate. On dry steel rims they were no different to rubber but in wet conditions they were an improvement - for about a month, after that they seemed to lose effectiveness, possibly due to the material being compressed whilst wet. Replaced them with some of the first Kool Stop grey blocks that were imported which seemed better and then dropped in a pair of hand-me-down alloys which improved things no end.