I’m doing a brevet this weekend, and put some lighter tires on in preparation.  I ran into an interesting dilemma – the Paul Racers that I had recently put on in place of my Silver Sidepulls were much harder to release.  I had to lengthen the hanger cable so I could get the cable button out of the brake arm release.  Now there is more play in my lever before the braking starts.  Annoying.

This was a simple flip of the finger before with the sidepulls.  Wow – there is something to be said for simplicity.  Don’t get me wrong, the Racers are beautiful and have better modulation than the Silvers.  BTW – for me this means there is more action or length of pull at the lever for the equivalent brake force, and the braking force increases incrementally as I move the lever through its arc – i.e. it’s not grabby and has more feel.  Important to some, but I got used to v-brakes, so I don’t really notice it much.

The Silvers had just as much stopping force, no exposed cable, and are much easier to release.  This comes in handy when I have to change a tire on the side of the road.  Sometimes I should just leave things well-enough alone…