Follow up to Racers

07 Thursday Mar 2013

Tags

brake modulation, brake release, modulation, Paul Racers, Racers, Silver, Silver Sidepull

Cable Button on Racers

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…

Racers

22 Friday Feb 2013

Posted by Stonehog in Cycling

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

a. homer hilsen, ahh, brake shudder, Funky Monkey, Paul, Paul Racer, rivendell, Silver Sidepull

Paul Racer Brakes

I’ve been upgrading the Homer for the past 3 years as the time and money becomes available. I have always admired Paul products from a distance, and recently realized I had a Riv dividend that would pay for a set of Paul Racers. I finally got the time to install them, so I’m all set.

A couple of notes/thoughts. The new brakes don’t feel stronger to me than the original Silver sidepulls. There is more modulation with these, but I’m guessing it’s just related to cable stretch. There is more exposed cable on both front and back. Both the Silvers and these Racers have great breaking power, so no net gain/loss there. Perhaps better feel. I do like the looks of the Pauls slightly more, but the Silvers were no slouch in that category either.

Brake Hanger

The cable hanger was interesting, and one downside to the center-pull brakes. I didn’t have much room for a fork crown mount as I have a rack and brakes mounted already, so I used a drop hanger, also a Paul (Funky Monkey), mounted to the stem. It leaves more exposed cable, and I’ve heard from a few sources (here is a good one) that this may cause shudder as the brakes may grab the rim, the fork flexes back as the tire grabs the road, and the cable tightens, until the pad breaks free, and the process starts again.