Front caliper as a rear caliper?

bigmat

Just wondering whether there is any reason why you couldn't use a front caliper as a rear brake? I'm guessing the only issue would be that the bolt might need cutting down, but other than that is there any reason not to?

Reason I ask is that I have Campagnolo brakesets on both bikes and am fed up of the single pivot rear brakes which always seem to go off centre and can be a pain to reposition. They don't seem to sell rear dual pivot calipers separately, so I am considering buying either a couple of front dual pivot calipers, or a dual pivot brakeset and sticking the rear on the best bike and modifying the front for the commuter / winter bike.

Any thoughts?

noodleman

You might find by the time you cut the shaft down you'd have no thread left to screw the nut on.

ugo.santalucia

I think you also need to invert the pads

buckmulligan

As you say, the mounting bolt is the issue and often a front caliper bolt is not threaded on the section that goes through the fork; so it's not really just a case of cutting it down, you'd need to cut a thread onto what is likely a hardened steel bolt, or replace it with a rear-specific one. The recessed nut lengths are likely different lengths too, so you'll probably have to source a new on of those regardless.

Then you're rapidly getting into the territory of "more trouble than it's worth". I'd say you'd be much better off trying to source a dual-pivot rear caliper second-hand (e.g. on eBay) or buying a set and selling whatever you have left over.

bigmat

Length of thread sounds like the main issue then. I'll have a look into it. Cheers all.

sheffsimon

BigMat wrote:

Just wondering whether there is any reason why you couldn't use a front caliper as a rear brake? I'm guessing the only issue would be that the bolt might need cutting down, but other than that is there any reason not to?

Reason I ask is that I have Campagnolo brakesets on both bikes and am fed up of the single pivot rear brakes which always seem to go off centre and can be a pain to reposition. They don't seem to sell rear dual pivot calipers separately, so I am considering buying either a couple of front dual pivot calipers, or a dual pivot brakeset and sticking the rear on the best bike and modifying the front for the commuter / winter bike.

Any thoughts?

I have Campag on both bikes, and many bikes in the past. Never had an an issue with the brake going off-centre, are you sure it doesn't need tightening up a bit more?

bigmat

Pretty sure they are tight enough. Maybe not. Just seems like a problem that doesn't exist with dual caliper brakes, and I have never really been convinced by the benefits of differential brakes anyway.

keezx

I have 2 bikes with a Campagnolo single pivot brake rear (older Chorus + Record ) and they go never off center.
Must be something wrong with your setup.(cable?)

rolf_f

I would also question whether there is an issue with the OPs specific brake. I run single pivot Campag rears on both my carbon bikes and there is rarely any need to tweak them. Actually never on the Summer bike, very occasionally on the all year/commuter. That has done over 30,000 miles in all weathers on the original calipers. I've had more trouble with the dual pivot front but that was down to crap encrusting the pivot surfaces which took some scraping to remove!

As for benefits of dual brakes - I can lock the rear easily enough with single pivot if I am clumsy enough so I would expect with a dual pivot no braking advantage but more tendency to lock up.

bigmat

Maybe the brake cable outer is too long / short. I'll try and tweak those first I think. Same on both bikes though, and brakes were set up by LBS (different one on each bike as well).