Cycles Grand Bois Chouette 36-42 Centerpull Brakes

[Lorin Youde]

Considering replacing my Mafac Raids with these brakes.  Would appreciate hearing from anyone who has installed these brakes.

Thanks 

Lorin  

[Jan Heine]

The Chouettes are very nice brakes, and we've considered importing them. However, we decided against it for the time being, because we feel that they may not be perfectly suited to the higher stresses that many North American riders put on their brakes. Simply put, we tend to be heavier, and we tend to brake harder.

For a number of reasons, I prefer the Mafac Raids. The Mafac arm shape is better optimized for stiffness. More importantly, the Mafac bolts are chrome-plated steel and have proven themselves over decades of hard use. The Chouette uses stainless steel hardware that hasn't proven itself in hard use. With stainless being more brittle, I am afraid of fatigue failures after repeated hard braking. Finally, the toe-in adjustment for the Chouette is finicky and can be difficult to get right.

Hopefully, there soon will be other alternatives to NOS Mafac Raids. Until then, I'd hold on to the Raids you have. They remain the best brakes ever made for a wide-tired 650B bike.

Disclosure: Compass Bicycles imports Grand Bois products to North America.

Jan Heine

Compass Bicycles Ltd.

www.compasscycle.com

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[William Lindsay]

I didn't even know they could be purchased yet.  Where will you buy them?  If nobody has them, nobody will have any feedback for us yet. 

[Lorin Youde]

I received a quote from Grand Bois for 23,500JPY today (August 2nd)  delivered to US including the pad adjustment tool. The reason I am considering replacing my Raids on my new Harvey Cycles Works 650B is I am having difficulty dialing in the Raids to be screech free under hard braking and the plated parts are rusting. (I use KoolStop pads and have ground them for toe-in, and fiddled with yoke length) I was hoping the Chouette's could solve these issues.

 Lorin

[Justin]

Are yours brazed on or center mounted?

If center mounted then go for Paul Racers.

-J

[Mike Schiller]

Paul Racers use standard canti posts and are brazed in a different location.   

~mike

[Justin]

Yes I know. That's why I didn't recommend to use them if brazed on. ;)

-J

[Chris L]

Actually they are available in both center mount and braze-on models. 

Chris Lowe

Sent by carrier pigeon.

[Mike Schiller]

Lorin's are brazed on.

~mike

[Justin]

Yup. Which limits them to:

Mafacs

Gran Bois

Perhaps the Dia Compe 750s? Not sure about post placement.

-J

[Greg Achtem]

This gets trotted out from time to time. 

http://ruedatropical.com/2009/01/mafac-dia-compe-paul-centerpull-brake-specs/

I had hoped that the 750s post placement would play nice with Raid post placement but that doesn't seem to be the case. My thoughts were to use the plentiful and inexpensive 750s while keeping a lookout for a good deal on Raids. This is for a vapour ware future project so no harm done. 

[Justin]

Ah dang. So it's either RAIDs or Gran Bois.

-J