I purchased the Oval Concepts brakes to replace the stock brakes on my P3SL and was wondering if anyone else had any issues installing them. When I first tried to put the front brake on it was rubbing against the fork and the bottom of the down tube, even with the supplied spacers. I ended putting about .5 inch of washers on there to make it work but now it looks ghettofabulous (BTW this is a 650c bike). Also, Im wondering if I’m missing a set screw for the aluminum cable housing. Should there be 2 or just 1? Thanks
I had the same experience. It took me about four hours of messing around before I got my oval (behind the fork) brake to work and look right. I had to create and file special washers. I still don’t understand why the parts they sent would not work on their own. I thought they sent me the rear brake or something. 1-2-3 I don’t get it.
Ditto with me. I even double-checked to see if my P3C was listed as a problem setup and it wasn’t. According to OC, it’s supposedly the simplest thing to do. I never got it to work with a Wolf fork and stole my Reynolds fork off my other bike. All I can figure is, it’s easy with OC fork?
What I’m trying to figure out is if I could do it with a Blackwell Research fork, of course OC has no comment and the guys at Blackwell said they’d never tried it.
FWIW, once you get it just right, it rocks. I took mine to a different bike shop and they got it so there was no rubbing.
-Chris
The following is from Oval’s website:
Bikes Confirmed Compatible: All Kestrel road and triathlon bikes All Argon 18 road and triathlon bikes All Scott road and TT/triathlon bikes w/ Oval A900 or R900 forks All Cervelo Soloist, P2, P3 and SLC’s All Giant road and TT/triathlon bikes All BMC TT bikes All BH road and TT bikes (except 2007 TT) Bikes needing checking for compatibility Cervelo R3 Bikes confirmed Not Compatible All Scott road and TT/triathlon bikes w/ CR1 forks Look 496 Trek TT
I never got mine installed properly so I broke down and wrote to someone at Oval (I know, not the most manly thing to do). The guy wouldn’t give me mounting instructions and told me I had to find a “certified Oval technician.”
So are they really decent calipers? I can’t imagine the reduction in drag is worth the nightmare of trying to mount them.