I’m in the process of putting some brakes that might work on the pub bike aka the singlespeed aka the station bike. This is an old 1970’s Raleigh something that has morphed over time. It was a 27″ bike, but currently has some 700c wheels installed. The brakes were a set of cantilevers which never really worked and I’d like something that may actually stop you. I have a cheap set of standard road bikes brakes, but the problem is when installed the brake pads will brake nicely on the tyres, not the rims.

Hence I need some longer “arms”. I’ve seen brakes such as the Tektro R559 but am confused as to whether longer arms means that the brakes can deal with wider tyres – or actually have a longer reach (i.e. the distance from the crown to the rim).

Anyone had this problem before and solved it? If so how? Is the option above possible?

Long drop brakes have a longer distance from crown to rim.

Longer reach (or drop as it’s known). Often used on bikes that have clearance for mudguards, so the brake arms are longer to allow space for the guard.

Shimano r650 57mm drop calipers are probably what you want.

You’ll need to check whether a 57mm drop brake will be long enough to reach the rims. There are even longer drop brakes available.

Sheldon Brown has a few ideas for brakes on 27″ frames running 700 wheels on his repository…

Also the Alhonga deep drop brakes, for 57-75mm drop. http://www.spacycles.co.uk/products.php?plid=m2b37s0p0

it depends on you brakes but with my weinmann centrepulls i got round this by swapping the old blocks for v brake blocks, the v’s could be toe’d in to hit the rims perfectly when they were at at the lowest point in the caliper.

otherwise long drop brakes

You’ll need *really* long drop brakes. Unless the original wheels were fag paper clearances. One of my sets of long drops (shimano somethings) were bought from someone who had tried and failed to do what you are doing. Even on maximum adjustment he was ~5mm short.

Condor have a 59mm deep-drop caliper here.
I’ve used a similar drop [of] brake on my old (mid 1980’s) Raleigh Equipe.

(I’m using something similar ^ (albeit an earlier version) on my Fratello, and they are working perfectly).

or buy some 27″ wheels