"Poor Man's" aero brake

[Tom_Anhalt]

hi tom,

why a rear brake? can it be done with a front one?

how did you fit a rear into the fork?

any chunging done so far?

cheers, alvaro

The rear brake version was used due to the "reach" to the brake pads. If you look at the "front" brake setup that's intended to be mounted on the rear of the fork, in order to reach the brake track, the mounting plate of the Tektro brake is much taller and spaces the brake mounting hole further up relative to the pads...make sense?

The only modification I needed to do to fit it to the front of a fork is to replace the stock mounting "bolt" with a longer hex head metric bolt. The hex head fits right into the "cutout" in the brake mounting plate.

No "chung" on it yet...but I DO have a design started to replace the entire straddle cable with a couple of small roller bearings and a plate...stay tuned for more

[AFM]

Tom,

I got one of the Oval Brakes. I think I understand why you may not have used it but thought I'd run this question up the flag pole. The brake comes with a cable clamping device which can be actually mounted on either side of the arm - the noodle would go on the other side for a conventional set up. I was wondering why you didn't use it in the installation. Having said that it appears that the clamp may extend to far out of the respective cavity making the free length of cable between each arm unequal and affecting operation of the brake ?? How did it test out on the road with respect to braking - does it stop you OK ?? Do you think you could see the difference in a Chung test ??

Al

[Tom_Anhalt]

Tom,

I got one of the Oval Brakes. I think I understand why you may not have used it but thought I'd run this question up the flag pole. The brake comes with a cable clamping device which can be actually mounted on either side of the arm - the noodle would go on the other side for a conventional set up. I was wondering why you didn't use it in the installation. Having said that it appears that the clamp may extend to far out of the respective cavity making the free length of cable between each arm unequal and affecting operation of the brake ?? How did it test out on the road with respect to braking - does it stop you OK ?? Do you think you could see the difference in a Chung test ??

Al

I considered using that clamp on one end of the straddle cable, but as you mention, it messes with the "even-ness" of the cable pull.

No worries though, as I mentioned previously, I'm on the trail of an infinitely mo' betta' setup that involves small roller bearings and a straight channel...I just need to bend up a piece of aluminum to test it out.

If it works, I'll "imbed" that channel into a nice streamlined cap piece.

As it is, the braking power isn't stellar (clearance good, power so-so, lever feel kind of "mushy"), but I don't ask for much on the front wheel of my TT rig

I've thought about chungin' it...but I think I'll wait until I have the final configuration. It would be somewhat of a pain to swap the brakes between runs. Then again, I'm not expecting massive differences between that and my Cane Creek brake and I might not be able to reliably detect it, but every little bit helps as you say...

Speaking of "reliable detection", I've also been thinking about attaching ~.001 m^2 CdA balls to my helmet in some Chung runs and see how many it takes to see a difference reliably

[Alex Simmons]

How about a photo of set up?

[Tom_Anhalt]

How about a photo of set up?

Which one? The .001 m^2 CdA "balls" Yeah...that'll be pretty funny looking...

[AFM]

Here's my cut on Tom and Greg's design. Basically the same but I used a small length of 1/4 " OD copper tube as a cable carrier. Sorry about the reflection off the left side brake bolt. Also used the Oval brake noodle which has an adjustment feature. Still needs some fine tuning on the housing and cable length, adjustment of the brake, and installing housing end caps but I rode it today and it worked fine although the adjustment noodle was hard to manipulate. Also have the SRM cable internal which you really can't see but the bike looks much better. Hopefully another increment in the right direction .

[Tom_Anhalt]

Looks good Al! Just remember though, I didn't tell you to do this

On the adjustment thing...rather than using the noodle (like you did) or the CX cable stop (like I did), I'm thinking of actually just drilling a hole through the stem (like Greg did) and tapping the top hole to accept the threaded adjuster barrel from the CX cable stop. I just gotta make sure I use a beefy enough stem

BTW, I switched out the stock Tektro brake pads for some KoolStop Salmons and the braking is a bit better (still sort of "mushy" though...but OK for a TT front brake).

I guess I need to get cracking on the MarkII version soon...perhaps over my Christmas "break"

[gregclimbs]

Wow Tom... not a single comment about his workshop cabinets? I caught a rash of sh*t about my garage cabinets (my old kitchen cabinets repurposed on remodel) and Al's make mine pale in comparison.

I would guess that ritchey pro stem is MORE than beefy enough. I figure any stem over 180g has the meat to handle a drilled hole. I drilled two holes, counter sunk the top one and ran a nokon pearl (rounded end down) into the counter sink and it works well.

The only issue is the major PITA it is to play with the stem, but that isn't THAT big of a problem...

Looks REALLY good Al. Guess Tom is going to have to step his up a notch.

g

[AFM]

Looks good Al! Just remember though, I didn't tell you to do this

On the adjustment thing...rather than using the noodle (like you did) or the CX cable stop (like I did), I'm thinking of actually just drilling a hole through the stem (like Greg did) and tapping the top hole to accept the threaded adjuster barrel from the CX cable stop. I just gotta make sure I use a beefy enough stem

BTW, I switched out the stock Tektro brake pads for some KoolStop Salmons and the braking is a bit better (still sort of "mushy" though...but OK for a TT front brake).

I guess I need to get cracking on the MarkII version soon...perhaps over my Christmas "break"

I was a leary of drilling and tapping a hole in the stem - not something I'd want to fail but I may switch to a Ritchey adjustable stem which has more material. Also did try the adjuster on the cable hanger but the cable housing bend was fairly tight although the brake worked OK. Also the cable hanger I used had a shorter drop - the noodle is more flexible so works well. I was planning to switch the pads out to the Kool Stop Carbon specific pads - so the Salmons work OK with carbon brake tracks ?? I also have a Rithey cable hanger which has a 45 deg adaptor on it - it's only available in a 1 1/4" and 1" size so had to get an adaptor from "Bike Tools" - I may try that also as it has even a shorter drop.

Looking forward to Mark II.

[AFM]

Wow Tom... not a single comment about his workshop cabinets? I caught a rash of sh*t about my garage cabinets (my old kitchen cabinets repurposed on remodel) and Al's make mine pale in comparison.

I would guess that ritchey pro stem is MORE than beefy enough. I figure any stem over 180g has the meat to handle a drilled hole. I drilled two holes, counter sunk the top one and ran a nokon pearl (rounded end down) into the counter sink and it works well.

The only issue is the major PITA it is to play with the stem, but that isn't THAT big of a problem...

Looks REALLY good Al. Guess Tom is going to have to step his up a notch.

g

Ummmhh .... that's my kitchen . Just kidding - the cabinets came from a remodel as well but they were custom for the garage - not fancy but very nice to have. The garage is only for bikes plus overflow kitchen utensils and cats so it works out well.

Thanks for the details on the stem mods. I may try that when I get my '09 position tuned in better. One thing nice about the adjustable stem is that you can take it apart and look better at the interior which may be an advantage ??