I have not yet thoroughly read Jan's article, but I would have to agree Campy SP were a step backward in brake technology. Notice he says "technology", not finish or quality control. I don't think there is any doubt that classic CP's, either Mafac, Weinmann or Universal 61, stop better than Campy SP, although as you note, a big piece of Campy's poor performance is down to those damn hard pads. With Malthauser pads, they are a lot closer to CP's though still not as good.
And if one wants to be fair, they were a step backward only in the sense that they popularized the technically inferior Sidepull design. They can be credited, as least if you leave aside the pads, with raising the design and manufacturing standards for sidepull brakes. Not that they stopped any better than Universal 68's or Weinmann 500's, but they were much easier to set up and to adjust. I really like Weinmann 500, including the original ones on my Romic tourer that I just cleaned and polished and reinstalled last weekend. Once properly set up and adjusted, they perform every bit as well as Campy - actually better if both have NOS correct pads. But as you note, getting Campy SP properly centered was nearly effortless, while Weinmann 500 was a real ritual. And the Campy QR and barrel adjustor are perfectly engineered. And of course the finish is impeccible, as one expects of Campy's top line components. In short, Campy introdcued a whole new generation of sidepulls, which quickly brought a host of imitators, including original DuraAce (ignoring the short lived DA CPs), Diacompe/Suntour, Universal 77, Weinmann Carrera, Galli and Modolo, and even eventually the Mafac SP.
Never mind that the new generation of Campy-inspired CP's didn't stop as well as CP's. They were easier to install, easier to adjust, probably lighter when you take into consideration the lack if hangers, straddle cables and cable carriers, and prettier. And most important, Eddy Merckx used them, whereas Jacques Anquetil, the poster child for Mafac CP's, was now retired.
It would take the introduction of dual-pivot SP's to finally bring SP performance to par with CP's. Or maybe I should say the popularization of dual pivots. In fact dual pivot SP's had been introduced by Altenburger well before the Campy SP's, although these are more familiar in the GB (licensed?) version as GB Symmetrics. I have an original pair of these on a Raleigh Super Tourer, and they really do perform nicely. But it would be more than a decade before the dual pivot SP would become widely popular.
Regards,
Jerry Moos
Big Spring, Texas, USA
> From: Barb and Dan Artley <hydelake@verizon.net>
\r?\n> Subject: [CR] Bicycle Quarterly's Braking issue, 'Modern Racing Brakes'
\r?\n> To: "Classic Rendezvous" <Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
\r?\n> Date: Saturday, January 17, 2009, 10:58 PM
\r?\n> I finished reading the latest bicycle quarterly a few days
\r?\n> ago and was
\r?\n> very impressed with the history and advances of braking
\r?\n> technology. I
\r?\n> learned a lot. I do have to question an item that Jan
\r?\n> brought up in
\r?\n> Chapter 4, Modern Racing Brakes, describing the Campagnolo
\r?\n> sidepull as
\r?\n> being a step backward in brake technology.
\r?\n> 'Campagnolo's brake offered
\r?\n> adequate perfomance, but it did not compare favorably to a
\r?\n> good
\r?\n> centerpull brake. The famous line was invented that these
\r?\n> bakes did not
\r?\n> stop the bike, but just "modulated speed".'
\r?\n>
\r?\n> I do agree that the Campy pads in particular faded badly in
\r?\n> the heat.
\r?\n> And I had a pair of aching hands once after starting a
\r?\n> mountain descent
\r?\n> in the rain bunched up with about eight or nine hundred of
\r?\n> my closest
\r?\n> friends for the money shot at the start of a wet 'Cycle
\r?\n> across
\r?\n> Maryland'. But racing cyclists can't be all wrong.
\r?\n> Those brakes were
\r?\n> favored in the peloton for many years because they worked
\r?\n> well. If a
\r?\n> spoke broke or a wheel went out of true, it was easy to
\r?\n> open the brake
\r?\n> caliper a bit with it's micoadjust lever on a brake
\r?\n> that would open more
\r?\n> than a centerpull because it had a longer lever arm. The
\r?\n> adjustment
\r?\n> barrel could loosen or tighten the caliper further without
\r?\n> having to
\r?\n> stop riding. Properly adjusted, they didn't chatter
\r?\n> and were one of the
\r?\n> most solid feeling brakes of the day. And because it took
\r?\n> a firm feel,
\r?\n> modulation and quick response was excellent. With
\r?\n> Mathauser pads
\r?\n> optimizing my personal bike, feedback makes it easy to keep
\r?\n> braking
\r?\n> close to the limit of the tire's adhesion both front
\r?\n> and rear. The
\r?\n> wheels can be locked, but to me not as easily as
\r?\n> centerpulls. I'm sure
\r?\n> at least a few of you have done emergency braking at speed
\r?\n> with both
\r?\n> wheels feathering a line over an unexpected slippery patch
\r?\n> to keep from
\r?\n> going down.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> The Campy sidepull basically enhanced one of the greatest
\r?\n> racing or
\r?\n> fairly close ratio brakes of all time, the lowly Weinman
\r?\n> 500 sidepull
\r?\n> which I believe works every bit as well. I think it
\r?\n> preceded the
\r?\n> Campagnolo sidepulls. The flats on the Campy's
\r?\n> centerbolt allowed a
\r?\n> cone wrench to center the caliper easily, and took two
\r?\n> 'Y' wrenches on
\r?\n> the 500 to do the same thing. Through the years Weinman
\r?\n> offered
\r?\n> different barrel adjusters, quick releases, the ability to
\r?\n> reverse the
\r?\n> housing direction (say for ladies frames), but the
\r?\n> Campagnolo sidepull
\r?\n> served it's purpose like another famous line 'with
\r?\n> jewel like
\r?\n> precision'.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> While I look at the progression from GB coureur sidepulls
\r?\n> (the earliest
\r?\n> brakes I've tried) to Weinman to Campagnolo and now the
\r?\n> dual pivots
\r?\n> which are hard to better in a short to medium reach brake,
\r?\n> the
\r?\n> Campagnolo Nuovo & Super Record's were (and still
\r?\n> are) fabulous brakes
\r?\n> for all but tandems and heavily laden touring bikes. And I
\r?\n> still put up
\r?\n> with them on my tourer! I believe in old technology that
\r?\n> works well.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Happy trails,
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Dan Artley in Parkton, Maryland USA