Tektro RL520 for single pivot/side pull calipers?

[chugsy]

Hi All,

I bought myself an 80s Raleigh Pursuit for tooling around town - hopefully it looks too old and beat up to be worth nicking! Not to happy with the brake levers and accompanying suicide levers and I have a pair of Tektro RL520s (for use with V brakes- remnants of a past project) which are very comfy in the hand. Anyone know if these will work? As I understood, normal road levers didn't pull enough cable for Vs so surely the opposite is true in this case? Will probably try this out anyway in a couple of days time but if anyone knows better let me know! Wish I had tried this before changing the brake cables :|


Cheers All
Chugs

Pic - fettled and new cables/tyres:

 

[MacB]

they will work but not ideally, I did similar but the front brake was a v-brake and only the rear a caliper, not sure I'd want the front brake mismatched. For not much you can buy the Tektro road version, RL340 I think, which are as comfy as the RL520s.

If your RL520s are in good nick then they sell very easily as well.

 

[chugsy]

Thanks MacB! I can always rely on your experience!

I'm trying to keep costs right down because of the nature of the purpose of this bike . Therefore I want to use up as much of my spares box as possible. I've seem the 340s on high on bikes for 14 quid but am not confident I could sell mine on ebay for a decent amount judging by the current listings.

They are in very good condition however... never really used - just installed on a variety of bars as experiments.

 

[PatrickPending]

indeed braking will be poor - i know this cos many years ago - before i knew the difference - my lbs sold me a pair (even though he knew i had weinmann centre pulls on my carlton at the time guess it was all he had in stock - wouldn't use that shop at all now!) - braking awful - bought the shimano drop brake levers - fine again.....eventually changed to 105 sti and deep drop dual pivots,,,,even better...

 

[PpPete]

I'd keep an eye open for something like this going cheap on ebay, and stick to the existing levers for now. If the suicide arms are removable so much the better, otherwise leave them.

OTH non-aero levers mark a bike out as being old and not worth nicking.

Are those chromed rims BTW ? If so braking will be prety bad, especially in the wet, whatever you do.

 

[chugsy]

Thanks for the input guys! Rims are indeed chromed - in places! broken and rusted in places so braking is a little skippy to say the least. I'll be bimble-ing along on the main roads to the shops because I know from bombing around my estate that stopping is a tricky proposition! I agree about the appearence of non aero levers marking out the bike as "junk" - if I could have got away with it I would have left the original tyres on but they did not inspire confidence!

 

[chugsy]

I'd keep an eye open for something like this going cheap on ebay

I already had my eyes on these but will add your find to the list! Cheers!

 

[tyred]

I was just about to suggest leather pads but it looks like you might already have them. Degrease the rims. Leather pads do help in the rain on chrome rims but even a hint of oil on the rims will make them worse than useless. I find these Weinmann side pulls need a very determined pull to work properly.

 

[PpPete]

I already had my eyes on these but will add your find to the list! Cheers!

Spend the pennies on some cheap alloy wheels instead. Changing the levers is not going to help much on chromed rims. Leather pads do help but IMO still don't give anything like the braking you need for an urban bike.

I have an older looking set of Weinmann sidepulls (more rounded arms, and with a very kludgy looking QR lever) ... and find the braking on alloy rims to be really quite acceptable. Not up to Dual Caliper standards, but enough to lock the rear wheel on a wet road.

 

[chugsy]

Was in Decathlon today and spotted some cheap 700c rims - about 50 quid for the pair. I have already thought about new rims but decided against it as the more I plough into this the less likely I will want to leave it locked to a lamppost somewhere in my neck of the woods :| I'll probably bite the bullet later down the line anyway ;D are the hubs the same width for old wheels as new?

The change of levers is more to do will comfort braking from the hoods more than anything else - if I can retain the same level of braking with my current levers I would not be too upset.

 

[chugsy]

I heed the advice given and stuck with the original levers - wrapped the bars with fresh tape to seal the deal! Had another go at adjusting the brakes to the point where the suicide levers are quite good at scrubbing speed off now and the main levers approaching braking on a decent bike

Whilst working out how the calipers worked I managed to over stress the little black grommets that act as cable stops on top of the brake levers and damaged them - may have to replace the levers completely if they split.... shame as I like to ride in the bends and the suicide levers fall nicely to hand.

 

[PpPete]

I heed the advice given and stuck with the original levers - wrapped the bars with fresh tape to seal the deal! Had another go at adjusting the brakes to the point where the suicide levers are quite good at scrubbing speed off now and the main levers approaching braking on a decent bike

Whilst working out how the calipers worked I managed to over stress the little black grommets that act as cable stops on top of the brake levers and damaged them - may have to replace the levers completely if they split.... shame as I like to ride in the bends and the suicide levers fall nicely to hand.

You can get new aluminium ones for very little mney if you look around on ebay. I'll edit this with a link if I see any.

 

[chugsy]

Thanks - been looking myself with no luck. Would help to have a proper name to Google! Hoped somewhere like SJS woulkd have it but alas...

Cheers,

Chugs

 

[PpPete]

I can't find any separate "grommets" or whatever they're called, but these cables include them and won't "brake" the bank.

 

[chugsy]

Thanks Pete. I was thinking that ordinary barrel adjusters for brake levers would also do the job (and add extra cable adjustment to boot). Got a spare set of levers I can dismantle to try tomorrow.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Adjusting...sure_cycling_bikeparts_SR&hash=item588e0bbf2c

Your way I get spare cables - you can never have too many spare cables!