What size tire will Paul Racer brakes fit?

[wood chuck]

I'm toying with the idea of having a 650b frame/ fork built. I have a pair of Paul Racer   direct mount I'd like to use. I  don't know if they'll fit a 42c (say Babyshoe Pass) w/ a Honjo fender. Has anybody tried this combo? What were your results? Any info is greatly appreciated.

[Michael Mann]

I ran direct-mount Paul Racers on my Ocean Air Cycles Rambler, which was designed around these brakes and the frame/fork shipped with them. I put tens of thousands of miles on this bike in the five years I rode it before the frame cracked and then I wrecked it and bent the top and downtube. I was mostly satisfied with the brakes. I'm a fan of Paul brakes in general, and set-up, maintenance, and performance were great - good modulation and I never felt like they had limited stopping power. I ran mine with Berthoud fenders the whole time.

That said, 42 was the MAXIMUM tire width I could run with these, and even then I needed to deflate the tires to remove the wheel. If you want to run wheels that you can pop in and out, you need to run 38s. This limitation is part of why I spec'd my Custom Bantam replacement with disc brakes (Paul Klampers.) and after running the Paul Motolite brakes on my new Sam Hillborne, I have no desire to impose the width limitation on another bike and can't imagine I'll ever own another bike with Racers.

Mike M

On Mon, Dec 14, 2020 at 10:00 PM wood chuck <dirtba...@gmail.com> wrote:

I'm toying with the idea of having a 650b frame/ fork built. I have a pair of Paul Racer   direct mount I'd like to use. I  don't know if they'll fit a 42c (say Babyshoe Pass) w/ a Honjo fender. Has anybody tried this combo? What were your results? Any info is greatly appreciated.

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Michael Mann

[wood chuck]

Thanks for the feedback.

[murray....@gmail.com]

I can easily get a 48mm Switchback Hill in mine without fenders, but you have to let the air out to remove it.

I run 42s with finders no problem, but same story - doesn't open wide enough to remove inflated.

Murray Watson - Bungendore, Australia

[rfa...@gmail.com]

I have the racer mediums direct mounted on my bike setup with 32mm Conti GP5000s. Maxed out, wouldn't be able to fit a fender and need to deflate to remove.

Robbie Fargo

Aberdeen, Scotland. 

[David Pertuz]

My daily is a Rawland rSogn with braze-on Racers. I run it with nominal 42mm tires (Soma) and SKS fenders. I second what Michael says that this is the absolute biggest tire that will fit under the brakes. The problem is more with the width between the pads and arms than it is the height of the arch. I can fit my tires in and out without deflating, but I have to scrunch-scrunch-scrunch wiggle them through the pads. 38s would be a piece of cake.

they're great brakes, though. I have MotoBMX brakes on my other daily, a cSogn, and they're also great brakes, and for the same reasons, but with no clearance issues. However, the Racers allow me to use my preferred Ergopower levers.

David

Chicago

On Tue, Dec 15, 2020 at 12:00 AM wood chuck <dirtba...@gmail.com> wrote:

I'm toying with the idea of having a 650b frame/ fork built. I have a pair of Paul Racer   direct mount I'd like to use. I  don't know if they'll fit a 42c (say Babyshoe Pass) w/ a Honjo fender. Has anybody tried this combo? What were your results? Any info is greatly appreciated.

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[wood chuck]

Thanks for all of the unvarnished opinions. Sounds like if I go through with the build, I'll use cantis/v's. Why build trouble in from the start?

[Irving Pham]

I have a custom with 650b with Paul Racer brakes and really like the combo. I was able to put larger tires (Teravail Cannonball) but had to deflate the tire which wasn't really a big deal. For me, I preferred the braking feel of Paul Racers compared to cantilevers, but it might matter less to others.

[njh...@gmail.com]

If you use brake levers such as TRP RRL or Campagnolo, which have a quick release built into the lever, that gives additional clearance between the brake blocks for dropping a wheel with a fat tyre out without needing to deflate the tyre.

Nick

[pcb....@gmail.com]

Don't mean to be contrary, but with the Paul Racer/Ms being centerpull designs, with no onboard qr mechanism, the usual wheel-removal procedure on my ranch is to pop out the transverse cable. Once that is accomplished, the calipers can not spread any further, and there is zero cable tension. So having a qr mech in the brake lever would not allow the brake shoes to spread any further.

Same with cantis, and v-brakes. Pop the transverse/noodle, and there's your max 'tween-shoe clearance.

One can have cable tension adjusters on canti/Paul cable stops, and on v-brake noodles (stock on Paul Moto/Mini-moto v-brake noodles), but they don't really qualify as qr mechanisms to me. Screwing a barrel adjuster up/down isn't particularly quick.

Where I find onboard brake lever qr mechs to be very handy are with sidepull/dual-pivot calipers, where the caliper onboard qr mech often does not give you maximum spread. TRPs are a great help there. But if you're using a caliper with a transverse cable or noodle, I can't see a brake lever qr contributing to shoe spread.

Lastly, I've found that sometimes my Paul calipers won't open as wide as possible because of the very-long KoolStop pads that ship with Paul calipers. Seems a more common problem at the fork blades than seatstays---IME at the fork the rear of the shoes often contact the inside of the fork blades before the caliper fully opens. I've used shorter shoes in the front on some bikes to avoid that. I vaguely recall getting impatient and just cutting the back third off of the stock KookStop pads on one installation.

Technically I suppose longer shoes = more braking surface area = better braking, and front braking importance>rear, but I've never found shorter (= "normal") shoes up front to be a problem. And though I don't often ride a bike with 20lbs+ of gear, my hulking/aging/jelly-shaking/Sta-Puff Marshmallow Man carcass makes my bike/rider combo heavier than many of you svelte riders with gear a'plenty.

Paul Brodek

Hillsdale, NJ USA

[djm323]

I have a bike with brazed-on Paul Racers and TRP RRL levers, and as Paul Brodek says, the tire removal clearance is determined with the transverse cable unhooked so the arms are resting on the opposing pivots.  The quick releases at the lever just allow you to remove the cable more easily.  I had to deflate the Compass / RH Babyshoe Pass tires to clear the Koolstop brake pads when new, but could later squeeze them through after the pads had worn down a bit.  The clearance might vary a bit with post spacing.

Dan

Chicagaux • USA

[ericni...@gmail.com]

Fenders can further restrict the width of the brake opening, if the arms hit the top of the fender before the brake is fully open. I had this situation with direct-mount Paul Racers and fenders. There was still enough room to drop a 32 mm tire through, with a gentle reshaping of the fender under the brake.

Eric in NH

[njh...@gmail.com]

I find that having a QR mechanism in the brake lever is useful with centrepull, cantilever and v-brakes. With the QR in the lever giving extra clearance between the pads and rim, it's much easier to release the centrepull/cantilever straddle cable or v-brake noodle. I run my brake blocks fairly close to the rim, and with some brake calipers it's extremely difficult if not impossible to release the cable unless you do have a QR in the lever.

Nick Payne