Last weekend I went looking for some brake arms to replace the cheap stamped steel rams that I'd robbed off a mountain bike, they worked ok but the cables rubbed on my fenders and on a ride last Saturday the spring pin came out of the pivot allowing one of the shoes to rub the wheel for God only knows how many miles. Scratch one set of $20 Avid Rim Wrangler shoes. 
Did some searching for a set of long arm brakes and from everything I read people were recommending the Tektro 587ALs specifically for fender clearance.
Ordered a set on Monday from Niagara Cycle Works and received them today. Let me tell you these are some NICE brakes for $12 and they are almost too long for my build, on a normal bike they would be perfect. They come with everything needed for installation including mounting bolts and 2 "noodles", one at 90º and 120º, which was perfect for me since the 90 I was using had a tendency to direct the cable right up into my muffler.
The shoes that come with them are excellent! The Avid shoes were really noisy, didn't grab very well and tended to leave black streaks on my rims. The guy at the LBS told me I should grind the chrome off my rims to make the brakes work better, yea right!
The Tektro shoes make my bike stop on a dime in total silence!
The feel is great too. Full lock is about half pull on the brake lever now and solid instead of all the way to the hand grip. I can only imagine how much better these would be on a bike that was meant for rim brakes.
I definitely recommend these brakes as a replacement for any department store bike with V-brakes or anyone thinking about adding brakes with the add on horse shoe pivot kit.
Did some searching for a set of long arm brakes and from everything I read people were recommending the Tektro 587ALs specifically for fender clearance.
Ordered a set on Monday from Niagara Cycle Works and received them today. Let me tell you these are some NICE brakes for $12 and they are almost too long for my build, on a normal bike they would be perfect. They come with everything needed for installation including mounting bolts and 2 "noodles", one at 90º and 120º, which was perfect for me since the 90 I was using had a tendency to direct the cable right up into my muffler.
The shoes that come with them are excellent! The Avid shoes were really noisy, didn't grab very well and tended to leave black streaks on my rims. The guy at the LBS told me I should grind the chrome off my rims to make the brakes work better, yea right!
The Tektro shoes make my bike stop on a dime in total silence!
The feel is great too. Full lock is about half pull on the brake lever now and solid instead of all the way to the hand grip. I can only imagine how much better these would be on a bike that was meant for rim brakes.
I definitely recommend these brakes as a replacement for any department store bike with V-brakes or anyone thinking about adding brakes with the add on horse shoe pivot kit.
