Shimano 105 5700 and Tektro deep drop brake calipers

stagwhite
stagwhite Posts: 6
edited August 2010 in Road buying advice
Hi,

I'm looking around for bits for a winter bike. The frame/fork that I'm likely to buy require deep drop 47/57mm brake calipers. For a couple of reasons I'd like to stick with 10 speed Shimano stuff and was going to buy a complete 105 5700 group set and get some deep drop calipers separately.

Tektro seem to get decent reviews and their R538/R358 calipers are a reasonable price compared to the Shimano equivalents that I've found but I'm a little concerned about compatibility with the 5700 levers. I noticed some comments in another thread that the newer 5700/6700 levers might have a different amount of cable pull and are therefore only compatible with newer Shimano calipers.

Anyone know anything about this? I'd always thought that calipers were much of a muchness at a given price point.

Cheers,

Graeme

Comments

  • Legshaver
    Legshaver Posts: 75
    Mis-matched brake levers and calipers very often give poor braking. Some bike manufacturers have tried to keep the costs down on their products and fitted some models with 105 and 'no name' calipers, which look as though they are made by Tektro. The first thing that almost every owner does is replace the calipers with 105s.

    Buy matching units. The price difference is very small.
  • stagwhite
    stagwhite Posts: 6
    Looks like I'm worrying about nothing. The 5700 calipers do specify that they need the 5700/6700/7900 levers but after re-reading the articles and posts it looks like the levers will work OK with other calipers.

    Still interested in your thoughts though.
  • stagwhite
    stagwhite Posts: 6
    Legshaver wrote:
    Mis-matched brake levers and calipers very often give poor braking. Some bike manufacturers have tried to keep the costs down on their products and fitted some models with 105 and 'no name' calipers, which look as though they are made by Tektro. The first thing that almost every owner does is replace the calipers with 105s.

    Buy matching units. The price difference is very small.

    That makes sense to me but I'm not sure that there are Shimano deep drop calipers specifically for the newer levers. I'll have another look.

    Cheers.
  • SCR Pedro
    SCR Pedro Posts: 912
    As far as I am aware, the only Shimano deep drop calipers are: BR650, or BR450.

    There are some Q&A's for the BR650 here.

    If you shop around, you can get a pair of BR450 calipers for 30 quid.

    Pedro
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  • stagwhite
    stagwhite Posts: 6
    SCR Pedro wrote:
    As far as I am aware, the only Shimano deep drop calipers are: BR650, or BR450.

    There are some Q&A's for the BR650 here.

    If you shop around, you can get a pair of BR450 calipers for 30 quid.

    Pedro

    Cheers Pedro, that's what I found previously. I'm going to give the R650s a try.

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