Confused about brakes!!

chris_bass

Hi

I need some new brakes but i'm confused about compatibility with shifters.

I have 105 shifters so do i need 105 brakes?

as far as i can tell the brake lever just pulls the cable through so should just pull the brakes together as much as you pull the lever? right? so how can brakes not be compatible with particular levers? Most brakes say must be used in conjunction with specific levers!

i've done some searches and I'm now more confused than I was before!!

keef66

Different levers pull slightly different amounts of cable, so the manufacturers want you to match levers to calipers for 'optimum' mechanical efficiency.

However, if you look at the specs for many off the shelf bikes, they come with unbranded or lower spec calipers, presumably to meet a price point

In practice you can use any road caliper with any road lever and as you say, the lever pulls the cable and applies the brakes.

I have 105 levers and long reach calipers. I can lock both wheels from the hoods if I want.

Yossie

Essentially, you are right any brakes will work with any levers - I run Campy Record brakes with SRAM Red levers and they work just as well as Red brakes/levers and Record levers/brakes and at the time were lighter and blacker (adding 2mph top end). I also used this set up with Dura Ace and had no problem at all.

The cable pull thing happens on Shimano - until about a couple of years ago, essentially any Shimano brake would work perfectly with any Shimano levers - all pull ratios (ie how much you have to pull the lever to get power and the feel that you get) were the same. Then they changed the ratios slightly and now although any brakes will work adequately, they won't work perfectly (I was using 5 year old Ultegra brakes on last year's 105 levers for a year and they worked - but not that great - and felt wooden - I changed to a matched 105 caliper and all works lovely: lots of power, lots of lovely feel).

Remember that you don't have to match Shimano with Shimano etc - on yet another bike I also use Dura Ace levers with Tektro brakes (the carbon R750s I think they are) and they work perfectly (this was also the set up in the top of the range Boardmans about 3 years ago).

Loads of people do brakes: Mavic, Planet X, FSA, Tektro to name but a few: all should work fine.

HTH

Y

Bozman

Nope, i use Sram brakes with Shimano sti on one bike and they work a treat. You'll get a bit of optimum crap off folk but that'll be minimal and your average joe won't notice a thing.

chris_bass

thanks for the replies, thats kind of what i thought but the more i read the more conflicting arguments I found!

now just to decide on some decent brakes at a decent price!!