I have Vision brake levers that I am thinking I am not going to use as I like the Sram 500 with return springs. I might part with the vision but they are light and aero. Tough call.

I like the SRAM levers much better than anyother lever out there. No rattles and a pretty snappy return spring are their pluses over the Vision. Additonally they run the brake cable directly into the bar. This improves cable routing in some setups over the Vision and other levers with external cable routing. I have not tried the 3T levers, but those have a lot of nice features too.

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Suffer Well.

I came up with the same thing awhile back after seeing Tom's set up. Make sure to check the cables regularly - the short bridge piece of cable rubbed on the action arms resulting in significant fraying. I cut some short pieces of 1/4 inch OD copper tube and then slit those pieces longitudinally to make sleeves for the action arms (I did not use the cable clamp provided by Oval). The softer metal sleeve should hopefully eliminate or reduce the wear on the short length of cable.

New brake is on the way so I will be running full T726R brakes on the new build. So now that I have sorted it out I am going to try to get the build finished fairly quickly.

Technical aero question:

Of the "x" grams of drag saved by using a decent centerpull aero front brake with upper race cable hangar and an exposed cable, how much of that drag savings is from not using a standard-issue sidepull caliper vs. how much of that drag savings is from the shortened cable housing (the section in front of the head tube).

I.e., what percent of the savings would you lose if your centerpull brake was just as aero but it had cable housing (right in front of the head tube) going down as far as it does in this image:

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Advanced Aero TopTube Storage for Road, Gravel, & Tri...ZeroSlip & Direct-mount, made in the USA.
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Noone knows :-)

Tom A. measured the saving standard caliper v. his centrepull setup at 5 watts IIRC.

I seem to remember that the Simkins brake v. his centrepull was basically tied.

The setup on the Felt you posted has not been tested, other than by the Slowtwich Collective Eyeball Windtunnel, which deemed it no better than a standard caliper, and possibly worse (not my opinion by the way, I rely on other more expert eyeballs).
It seems to me that if the guy could ´shield´ the housing with a section of airfoil (i.e. min model plane wing, something like that) it would meet with more approval.

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´Get the most aero and light bike you can get. With the aero advantage you can be saving minutes and with the weight advantage you can be saving seconds. In a race against the clock both matter.´

BMANX

how much worse are the old 70's center pulls with some judicious pad replacement? I'm sure I could figure other things to increase their stiffness if need be.


What, you mean like a Mafac Racer? I think you would need a much longer recessed nut for a modern fork, hopefully the LBS will have one.



You´d definitely get extra retro/style points from me. The eyeball collective will probably dislike the ´ears´pointing out into the wind. Replacement pads readily available.

The obvious solution is the old Shimano AX centrepull, but AFAIK replacement pads are non existent and you have to ´shave´down modern ones to fit them in the brake shoes. This was the brake used on the snazzy Trek Project One TT machine, and those guys were looking at every available option.





Avoid the Weinmann Deltas, they´re crap.

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´Get the most aero and light bike you can get. With the aero advantage you can be saving minutes and with the weight advantage you can be saving seconds. In a race against the clock both matter.´

BMANX

More like about 2-3W




I wouldn't agree with that assessment. My hunch is it would be somewhere between a "standard" caliper and the more aero options...

The thing about modern TT/Tri bikes is that they have specifically shaped head tubes for trying to keep the air flow attached. Even though a fully sheathed cable run on the centerline gets it "out of the breeze", it's going to muck up the air flowing onto the head tube, especially at higher yaws and especially with the extra "junk" in there to act as a cable stop. I just think that a very narrow cable alone "mucks it up" a lot less...

Of course, even better would be if the cabling/actuation method is somehow routed internally and the brakes are made integral to the fork somehow...IMHO... ;-)

All of the above is pure speculation on my part though.

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Well I will stick with my centered exposed cable front and rear and when someone wants to test the bike in the tunnel, I will send it to them with no issues to get actual test data.

I have lost 1st place in age group by a few seconds, have tied for first and won by a few seconds so if I can get even 1 -5 seconds more out of the bike I will take it. Now obviously improving positioning, training methods, swimming faster and running faster will help as well but it is good to get one item off the table.

Yes! Thanks Barchettaman... I was thinking more along the lines of the mafac or an old set of shimano tourney's, but by the time I add replacement pads, adapters, etc. it'll probably be just as cheap (and better) to pick up one of the TRP's.

The AX's are nigh impossible to find, sadly.

That said, old school is cool :)

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The question of who is right and who is wrong has seemed to me always too small to be worth a moment's thought, while the question of what is right and what is wrong has seemed all-important.

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I am not happy with the way the brake levers look but they work and have a return spring.

I really like the brake set up on the front but lets just hope that they work as well as I hope they do.

If the braking is not as good as I hope in regards to front and rear brakes, I will take my EE brakes and put them on the back of both the Planet X build and the SLC and put the T726R brakes on the front of both bikes to at least have a very aero set up and a good brake on both bikes.

my brake and headset arrived tonight. will start putting it on tomorrow!

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

so I installed my center pull tonight using the FSA headset dustcap with integrated hanger. I notice that there is nothing securing it to the steerer tube except the brake housing and cable itself, and that it 'wanders' a bit as you steer left and right. Is this by design, or am I doing something wrong?

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

Now that you say that, I can see that happening and it makes total sense actually. With my set up I can tighten the screw to secure it to the steerer.

I'm wondering if using the 'elbow' it came with would make it more secure...hmm

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

Is that Eki? Kinda looks like the Biatch known as Viatch!

Most spacers don't rotate because nothing is pushing on them. In this case the cable housing pushes as the hars are turned. You could try putting some tubular cement the inside surfaces, just avoid the bearings.

If that doesnt work you could drill and tap a hole for a small set screw that would press against the steerer.

Also some some cable hosing is much stiffer than others. Jagwire can be really stiff, CLB is really floppy (and hard to find). Chances are the CLB stuff would push enough to move the hanger.

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Styrrell

so my problem was twofold - trying to use the headset dustcap with my own headset, and the headset I got is the wrong size.

anyone know of any low stack solutions? even these headsets with integrated hangers are very tall.

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

You're looking for a way to use a bare cable from the HS down to a center pull, with a low HS stack? If this is correct the specialized hanger is pretty low. I replaces the topcap with a topcap/hanger. I'm not sure what size fork steerer though.

If that doesn't work try a stem mounted cable stop like the one pictured on the cross bike a few posts above. Post 33 first pic

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Styrrell

a piece of 3/32" welding rod with a barrel adjuster brazed on:



Not my bikes, just random photos from the Interweb.

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´Get the most aero and light bike you can get. With the aero advantage you can be saving minutes and with the weight advantage you can be saving seconds. In a race against the clock both matter.´

BMANX

OK! I got the FSA IS-CX headset, and that actually works. I think it is not actually a *perfect* fit on the p3, it seems to be like 1mm too "tall" so there is a tiny gap between the frame and the dust cap, so I will have to watch for dust I suppose.

the hanger clears the head tube though (58 p3), and it comes with a barrel adjuster setup which is nice, and the hanger stays perfectly 'in synch' with the steerer tube now

this has a lot more stack than a normal low rise dust cap, I was able to adjust for that by going spacerless on my vision aerobars which I think will work out ok.

I'm taking this time to redo all my cable routing too, I'll report back this weekend with how the brake feels.

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

Make sure the HS Is correct. If the HS isn't correct some parts can move fore and aft independantly and wear on the steerer. Do a search for the M2Racer headset (probably on weightweenies). This headset had that problem and it basically sunk the company after they had to replace a bunch of headsets and forks. If you can't tell just inspect the headtube after a few rides and look for signs of wear.

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Styrrell

I'm following your progress with interest, Jack! I might try and do this to my P3 at some point over the winter. Question: Do you think there's enough room to run a centre pull with the FSA headset on a 51 where the headtube is only 101-102mm? Looks like it *might* be tight, to me.

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Coaching - Future Endurance

yeah there will be room, i wonder though if some hangers won't clear the head tube with your setup though.

also you will have to compensate for the lost stack when you put a hanger on there. looks like you have no spacers and a low stack headset cap already. might need to go downangle on the stem.

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

That looks like a good application for the stem cap bolt mounted hanger pictured above:

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