Singletrack Mountain Bike Magazine

• Overview
• Bike Forum
• Chat Forum
• For Sale
• Wanted
• Forum Help
• Classified Rules

Bike Forum

1. 5lab - Member

   So - my bmx has some generic side pull front brake. bit like this

   

   they are, frankly, aweful. I can pedal the bike along with two fingers holding the lever in.

   I've tried the generic things - replacing cables, replaced pads with softer ones, but its still crap

   is there any way to tune side-pull brakes? I'm guessing there must be some way? I Just use the bike as a town bike so don't need anything awesome, I'd just like to be able to stop if a car pulls out

   alternitively, are there any other, better brakes that only require a center pivot (I suppose I could mount a v-brake plate but I suspect that's be a bit crap.

   Ta for any help

   H

   Posted 2 years ago #
2. rootes1 - Member

   Search for dual pivot calipers, like fitted to modern road bikes - Tektro make some reasonable price ones - but you might not get any to suit the tyre and drop on a bmx ...... Bmx not got u brake mounts?

   Posted 2 years ago #
3. speaker2animals - Member

   I suspect the problem is how long the drop is for a BMX to get round the tyre. The length from the pivot point to the brake shoe is so long that there is a lot of flex unless well made. The arms need to have a lot of material put in to the line of rotation to resist the flex.

   Posted 2 years ago #
4. speaker2animals - Member

   You could try these if you can afford them:-

   http://www.identitibikes.com/billys/english/group.php?prod=bcdc-610-sil&PHPSESSID=q4krcgb67cu32fuuvfehn89a81

   I've got some nice Dia-Compe levers that I can sell you too for a total quality stopping solution!

   

   Posted 2 years ago #
5. genghispod - Member

   Good Lord - you must be an animal; I can't pedal a bike with two fingers at all.

   Posted 2 years ago #
6. 5lab - Member

   thanks for the offer but I don't have any mount for a top-pull brake - has to be side-pull

   seems strange no-ones made one with a load of metal on it to get round the flex - its not as if weight is a bit issue?

   Posted 2 years ago #
7. jond - Member

   But you'd need to anchor the end of the brake cable to use those (centre-pull) dia-compes. The ones underneath on the same page (the 806s) might be more likely perhaps:
   http://www.identitibikes.com/billys/english/productresults.php?delbrand=del&group=B&PHPSESSID=q4krcgb67cu32fuuvfehn89a81

   *waves*
   Wotcher Hugh !

   Have you tried cleaning the rims too ?

   Posted 2 years ago #
8. 5lab - Member

   easy Jon - how's tricks? you need to get down here for a ride, sharpish (I've not ridden since xmas so I'm nice and slow)

   the rims are pretty good, not mint but don't look too bad. The brake might already be a 806 (its outside, and cold, so sod that till tomorrow) - if not it's very similar.

   I might just stick one of these on

   http://www.winstanleysbmx.com/product/298/DNA_VBrake_Plate

   and use an old v-brake I've got kicking around

   its wierd though - surely a v brake should suffer the same flex issues as a side-pull? obviously the arms are straight but its not that hard to make things strong?

   Posted 2 years ago #

RSS feed for this topic

Topic Closed

This topic has been closed to new replies.