Listers,
OK, I'll step up to the plate here...
What's wrong with sidepulls? They're the best brakes out there for a racing road bike. Your're not going to get a better braking lightweight option than a set of Campags, or Universals or higher end Modolos. Any loss of braking power on these would be from bad brakepads more than a mechanical failure on the part of the sidepull mechanism. There's a reason everyone copied the Campag SR design till the introduction of the needlessly heavy, complicated and over powerfull dual pivot design.
I can make any bike do a stoppie with a well set up sidepull and probably have.
I thought that the discontinuation of the use of centerpull brakes was as a result of the needlessly heavy and complicated design. I know they offer more tire clearance, but racing bikes have thin tires, and for fat tires, cantilever brakes are lighter and more powerful. Above all, we are here for our veneration of racing bikes, right?
As for Deltas, they work really well. It's just that people don't know how to set them up... but they are, for certain, too heavy for a 'racing brake'.
-Harry Schwartzman Long Island City, NYC, Enjoying the last day of our eight year national nightmare here in the USA.