dave martinez wrote:
Hello All, I've listed afew items on Ebay: Phil Wood disk brake, Shimano disk brake, Nervar Star crankset and a SR Extra Super Light stem. You can check 'em out by search under my Ebay name-- 55denti.
---------------- In the spirit of encouragement, I'd offer comments on the two brakes, which both are within our time frame. We have a Phil on our "new" tandem, and a Shimano "E" on one of the "old" tandems. The Shimano weighs 1.5#, the Phil 1#. The shimano is the huret of brakes: elegance in purely functional sheet metal forming; the Phil is a really clean realization of the machinist's craft. The Shimano is touchy to set up (I actually built a jig and brazed on a mount, but it was not a panacea), but clean to use: there is NOTHING to disconnect to change a tire, nothing to readjust, etc. In contrast, the Phil requires disconnecting the operating cable and then hitching it back up, and the torque arm has to be watched, etc.
But mostly, unless Dave is offering a PHil with the latest, metal-reinforced disk, I would not use it w/o a redundant (rim) brake. I've had one of the fibre disks fail at the splines while I was riding. I've also seen a late model that failed due to overheating. On a 1000' drop (Mohonk Mt, NY), Susan and I heated the Shimano to the point that it warped, but did not fail.
So, the Phil has a role on a vintage bike; it was standard on some really elegant place, but I think it has only two places now: as a redundant mild-duty hill retarder and wet-weather speed controller, and as an objet d'art on the wall. BTW, I'm pretty firmly against setting up vintage front wheels with dishing for a disk brake: the lateral loads on front wheels, particularly in very slow manuevers, can buckle the wheel when combined with the momentum of a loaded double or triple. Saw it happen one day to an awful nice guy.
I do have some spares for Phils, except the disk (of course!)
harvey sachs
mcLean VA