Russ Fitzgerald wrote:
>the last bike I had with Universals had original, stock pads
>which were worthless, possibly because they were a quarter of a century old.
It is my recollection that, back in the day, the Universal pads were unusually good, and remember searching hard (and unsuccessfully) for O.E. replacements in the late '70s. This was not because I cared about keeping them stock, but because they were good...but the years have not been kind to them or to other older shoes, and braking power decreases as the rubber dries out.
Sheldon "Universal" Brown
Newtonville, Massachusets
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