I too wish Campy would come out with a modern longer reach brake.
Regarding the Nuovo Record brakes: Many people complain about the effort on them. I use both earlier and later versions of the brakes, but haven't noticed much difference between them. But while I do notice the effort to be tougher than modern brakes -- and even contemporary offerings from SunTour or Shimano -- I've never had any near-death experiences. My favorite pads for these are from Aztec and are somewhat similar to KoolStops, but I don't think the ones I like are available anymore. I occasionally see them on Ebay, and sometimes with the name Madison on them -- but they work well, and you can adjust the toe-in very easily. But if your brakes are REALLY hard to work -- so bad that you fear for your safety -- one thing that you should look at is the tension adjustment. You can adjust the tension on those brakes pretty easily, and make sure you have good lubrication on the pivots.
Kyle Brooks Akron, Ohio
On Wed, Feb 15, 2006 at 10:25 PM, bjwebel@mac.com wrote:
> I have a pair of Campy N. Record calipers from the early 70s, and am
> not all that thrilled with the braking on them, particularly the hand
> effort required, even with new pads.
>
> Does anyone have any suggestions on others to try? Were later campy
> models better in this regard?
>
> I'd really rather not go to the modern shimano or tektro calipers,
> and campy doesn't even make 47-57mm reach these days as far as I can
> tell, but I had a pretty close call on a ride a few days ago and was
> thinking ugly brakes might not be the worst thing compared to being
> plastered on the back of a van.
>
> thanks,
>
> Baird