HI All, The best way to toe in Universal Brakes is not to toe them in at all. I have had very good luck by replaceing the original brake shoes (of course saving them for future display and show purposes) with Aztec (Madison) brake shoes. These brake shoes come with an orbital washer that allows you to adjust the angle of the shoe relative to the sidewall of the rim to acheived proper toe in. Once adjusted there is no squeal and the performance of these brakes increases several fold. Oh by the way I also use these brake shoes on Weinmann brakes with very good results. Kris Koller - Martinez, CA., still cold but sunny!
Stephen Barner <steve@sburl.com> wrote: I have a couple of these Universals in a parts drawer, each with one of the arms broken from a mechanic bending the arm with a wrench to toe it in. I seem to remember a tendency for squealing with them. I also have a broken Universal centerpull caliper from a Cinelli Mod B that I had and I am the fool who snapped it off. It was amazingly easy to do for a guy who had bent thousands of Weinmann arms without any problem. This was a standard adjustment on the Boom bikes we setup.
I would be very, very careful about bending those arms, and I would suggest spacing before tweaking.
--Steve Barner, Can't ride with 2' of snow on the ground, Bolton, Vermont
> Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2003 17:11:09 -0500
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> Subject: Re: [CR]Universal brake questions
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> From: Jan Heine
> > Date: 2003/12/15 Mon AM 10:05:14 EST
> > I have a Universal rear brake, the sidepull with the extra arm. When
> > I mount it on the bike, the pads interfere with the seat stays.
> > Checking images of Universal-braked bikes, it appears that the arms
> > are bent slightly to provide clearance. Before I start bending - is
> > this correct?
>
> Jan,
> Do they look like these?
>
http://ebay.com/
> Can you space them out from the bridge so the pads clear?
>
>
> Pete Geurds
> Douglassville, PA