Another trick is to remove the Mafac calipers, take them apart, lube all the moving parts, replace the pads, throw everything in the trash bin and install some nice Campy side-pulls. ;-) Sorry, I just do not get the adoration of Mafac center-pulls. The recent installation of them on my McLean was like chewing glass. Let's see, you can adjust the pads in, out, up, down, angle up, angle down. Then to get the pads parallel to the rim surface requires the fine adjustment that only channel locks or the Crescent wrench can provide. I could install ten Campy side-pulls in the time it takes to tweak one Mafac center-pull just right. And then, after all that, they squeal like a banshee. And just to subject myself to more ridicule, I find their stopping power to be no better than Universal center-pulls and significantly worse than Campy side-pulls. I'll grant that brazed-on pivots would probably improve things but that would represent less than 1/10 of 1% of the bikes out there with Mafac center-pulls installed. Oh, and I really like the combination pad holder shaft/spring stop. That really makes fine adjustment a snap.
George Allen donning my fire-proof suit in Lexington, Ky USA
Andrew R Stewart wrote:
> List- Another trick to silence Mafacs were to exchange the Mafac pads
> and shoes for CLB "Racer" ones and then fit Weinmann pads to the CLB
> holders.
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Charles Andrews"
> <chasds@mindspring.com>
> To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
> Sent: Monday, December 07, 2009 11:13 PM
> Subject: [CR] squealing mafacs
>
>
>> Jerry Moos wrote:
>>
>> Maybe folks liked the greater adjustability of the cantilever-type
>> shoes on the MAFACs, despite their tendency to squeal. Or maybe the
>> squealing was seen as a safety feature, making a bell unnecessary :-)
>>
>>
>> ************
>>
>> On the Rose Bowl vintage ride this past weekend, at the end of the
>> ride, we were standing around admiring each other's bikes...another
>> rider was taking a close look at the Rene Herse Poly de Chanteloup
>> tandem Carmen and I had ridden on the ride, noticing that the Mafac
>> Raid brakes were attached to the bike at the pivots, as was common on
>> the constructeur bikes (the Raids appear as if they would work better
>> than way too, they're quite thin up top), and then I noticed for the
>> first time that the brake pads were not original Mafac...they were
>> campagnolo pads..more precisely, one-and-a-half campagnolo pads
>> installed in the Mafac holders. I'd never noticed that..but we all
>> agreed, that was probably why they didn't squeal.. ;> A rather trick
>> little trick you might try yourself.
>>
>> Charles Andrews
>> Los Angeles
>>
>>
>> Q: "Why do people spoil everything for
>> themselves?
>>
>> A: "In big ways, and little ways too,
>> people do that all the time to themselves.
>> We can't stand prosperity.
>> We have to tinker with the machinery."
>>
>> --John D. MacDonald
>> _______________________________________________
>
> Andrew R Stewart
> Rochester, NY