Much of your brake preferences depend on how and where you ride. Just like cars, where racing on a track probably would make my car's brakes overheat within a lap or two, but on the road, tire adhesion is the limiting factor (hence the usefulness of ABS for most drivers, as it optimizes tire adhesion).
Most cyclists never brake very hard, and most brakes will work fine. As somebody pointed out, all brakes will stop you - eventually. However, at least on dry pavement, there is so much tire adhesion that the brake becomes the limiting factor. Assuming skilled riders who brace themselves against the handlebars and shift their weight back, better brakes will result in shorter stopping distances. (So does lower speed!) On your Rambouillet, the tires aren't very large. A well-designed dual pivot brake will get you plenty of brake power. If you were trying to span a Hetre with fenders, then I'd definitely recommend brakes that have brazed-on pivots and thus shorter arms, whether centerpulls or cantilevers. Jan Heine Editor Bicycle Quarterly http://www.bikequarterly.com Follow our blog at http://janheine.wordpress.com/ -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en-US. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
