Campy Euclid Calipers

It's just a U brake made by Campy so the oddball factor is high. Yes, you will need bosses brazed
on. Phil Brown

Quoted message said:

Any particular strengths or weaknesses to Euclid calipers? I'm considering using them in place of
other centerpull caliper on a bike that will be used with wide tires and fenders. Will have special
bosses brazed to forks and seat stays. Thanks for your opinions.

Among those brakes the Euclid is exceptionally well made. It is simple to open the spring/pivot area
to clean/lubricate. When these died a horribly fast death as fashion passed them by, I had a stack
of them priced at not much more than the brake shoes. I still see some of those occasionally
encrusted with salt and mud on the bottom of $200 KMart bikes and they work fine after all these
years. The ability to thoroughly grease the springs/pivots sets them ahead of some designs.

Too bad they are usually mounted below the chainstays - else the unique arm-in-arm design could be a
god conversation starter.

I gotta ask though - why? I can see where you'd want these brakes to replace an ABrake or a UBrake
that was rusted. But you're _adding_ the posts, right? Generally, cantilevers are lighter and easier
to work with in most respects. Owners of Ritcheys/Bridgestones/TerraTechs sold here with Euclid
brakes whine asking for cantilevers

--
Andrew Muzi yellowjersey.orgyellowjersey.orgOpen ↗ Open every day since 1 April 1971 "Gary Jacobson"
<[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

Any particular strengths or weaknesses to Euclid calipers? I'm considering using them in place of
other centerpull caliper on a bike that will be

used

Quoted message said:

with wide tires and fenders. Will have special bosses brazed to forks and seat stays. Thanks for
your opinions.

GJ

Gary Jacobson said:

Any particular strengths or weaknesses to Euclid calipers? I'm considering using them in place of
other centerpull caliper on a bike that will be used with wide tires and fenders. Will have
special bosses brazed to forks and seat stays.

Those brakes are great! In effect, they are no different from Tektro, Dia-Compe, or Shimano
U-brakes, but oh! so much swankier. They are more than 15 years old now, so you'll want to install
fresh brake pads.

One thing to note is that older U-brakes like Euclid use a center straddle, whereas some newer
freestyle-oriented ones use a direct-pull with the housing coming in from the side a la V-brakes. It
would not be impossible, I imagine, with a little ingenuity to set the Euclid brakes up in this way
if you wanted to. If you have suitable frame- and stem-mounted housing stops then centerpull is
probably fine.

Chalo Colina

Quoted message said:

I gotta ask though - why? I can see where you'd want these brakes to replace an ABrake or a UBrake
that was rusted. But you're _adding_ the posts, right? Generally, cantilevers are lighter and
easier to work with

in

Quoted message said:

most respects. Owners of Ritcheys/Bridgestones/TerraTechs sold here with Euclid brakes whine
asking for cantilevers

I have never really like setting up cantilevers, and thought that it might be nice to use a Mafac
centerpull mounted on bosses on a frame that I am having built for me. It'll be an audax style bike,
and there is something about tradition, as irrational as it is, that keeps popping up when I make
decisions. Also irrationally, I have an aversion to the brand that begins with Sh. I thought that by
using Euclids I could have an all Campy audax bike. There are other ways to do it all Campy, like
find older calipers with "long reach". When will Campy make a longer reach modern caliper and a 110
bcd crank? They'd certainly sell a fair amount of this stuff.

I didn't know that U brakes, or centerpulls on studs are easier to work on than cantilevers. I may
very well leave emotion behind and get some Tecktro or Shimano calipers.

BTW, I really believe that many choices we make around cycling hardware are emotionally based. I
just told a kid in the neighborhood bike shop who was lamenting about his inability to afford a high
end bike that he, nor I, nor most people would know the difference between a $600.00 bike and a
$1200. one. In fact what 600. buys these days used to cost $1200.00. I doubt that I could really
tell the difference between a $1200. bike and the ones that I ride.

Gary Jacobson Rosendale, NY

"Gary Jacobson" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I didn't know that U brakes, or centerpulls on studs are easier to work on than cantilevers. I may
very well leave emotion behind and get some

Tecktro

Quoted message said:

or Shimano calipers.

Ooops, I meant to say I didn't know I didn't know that U brakes, or centerpulls on studs are more
difficult to work on than cantilevers.

Quoted message said:

Gary Jacobson Rosendale, NY

Bluto said:

One thing to note is that older U-brakes like Euclid use a center straddle, whereas some newer
freestyle-oriented ones use a direct-pull with the housing coming in from the side a la V-brakes.
It would not be impossible, I imagine, with a little ingenuity to set the Euclid brakes up in this
way if you wanted to. If you have suitable frame- and stem-mounted housing stops then centerpull
is probably fine.

But a V-brake style "linear pull" would be preferable, since the mechanical advantage is closer to
linear as the name implies, rather than getting worse just when it should be getting better.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | You will say Christ saith this and the apostles say this; but _`\(,_ | what canst thou say?
-- George Fox. (_)/ (_) |

The Campy U-brake is a massive thing as is the Shimano. I have some of the Campy ones but I've not
yet used them. I know the Shimano ones work very well and I'm sure the Campy ones would too. I had
U-brake posts brazed on at the rear of my custom Bilenky touring frame because U-brakes don't stick
out to the sides and interfere with panniers like cantilever brakes do. I used a DiaCompe U-brake on
my Bilenky and it works great. The advantage of the DiaCompe was that it was still in production at
the time (and may still be) and that it's much less clunky looking than the Campy or Shimano brake
but still nicely stiff and powerful. I've not seen a Tektro U-brake but I've been favorably
impressed with all the other Tektro stuff i've seen.

A U-brake may be somewhat oddball but far less so than a Mafac with or without brazed on bosses.

A further consideration is that the Campy and Shimano U brakes use the spherical ball type brake
shoes like a V-brake so they're easy to adjust. The DiaCompe uses the smooth post type shoe like
most cantilever brakes. The advantage of these is that it's easy to get the short brake shoes that
work better on the front of a bike with a narrow road type fork. However, Kool Stop made me some
custom short spherical ball type shoes when I asked them to and didn't even charge extra. Nice
people to deal with.

Bob Taylor

"Gary Jacobson" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I gotta ask though - why? I can see where you'd want these brakes to replace an ABrake or a
UBrake that was rusted. But you're _adding_ the posts, right? Generally, cantilevers are lighter
and easier to work with

in

Quoted message said:

most respects. Owners of Ritcheys/Bridgestones/TerraTechs sold here with Euclid brakes whine
asking for cantilevers

I have never really like setting up cantilevers, and thought that it might be nice to use a Mafac
centerpull mounted on bosses on a frame that I am having built for me. It'll be an audax style
bike, and there is something about tradition, as irrational as it is, that keeps popping up when I
make decisions. Also irrationally, I have an aversion to the brand that begins with Sh. I thought
that by using Euclids I could have an all Campy audax bike. There are other ways to do it all
Campy, like find older calipers with "long reach". When will Campy make a longer reach modern
caliper and a 110 bcd crank? They'd certainly sell a fair amount of this stuff.

I didn't know that U brakes, or centerpulls on studs are easier to work on than cantilevers. I may
very well leave emotion behind and get some Tecktro or Shimano calipers.

BTW, I really believe that many choices we make around cycling hardware are emotionally based. I
just told a kid in the neighborhood bike shop who was lamenting about his inability to afford a
high end bike that he, nor I, nor most people would know the difference between a $600.00 bike and
a $1200. one. In fact what 600. buys these days used to cost $1200.00. I doubt that I could really
tell the difference between a $1200. bike and the ones that I ride.

Gary Jacobson Rosendale, NY