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Anyone have a clue what type of brake I can fit to this front fork?

The reach to a 700C wheel would need to be 80MM (do you even get calipers this long?) and the only brazing on the fork is this weird looking bottle opener thing so no option for canti's etc........stumped!!

front Fork

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3 Answers 3

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A BMX caliper such as an Odyssey 1999, Dia-Compe Bulldog, ACS Boa, or any number of others would work. Published reach for the 1999 is 74-95mm and and 86mm for the Bulldog. Some of these brakes are pretty respectable in terms of power/performance, and a lot are garbage. Watch out for weird oversize pivot bolts on some of them.

1999

Other solutions where the reach should be good but that probably won't work very well with a narrow road rim: Odyssey Pitbull and Pitbull 2 roller-cam brakes, or a 990/u-brake adapter and a standard modern BMX u-brake.

Edit: Some of the longest and fanciest of the fancy rando long-reach centerpulls may also work, barely. Compass lists their brake as 65-80mm. However, if it did reach, it would probably be the best brake you could get on there.

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One other idea in addition to the other perfectly good answers is utilizing a drop bolt. They can be bought but are also commonly made at home for situations like this. Here is a couple of images of different styles both store bought and custom made.

Home made pipe style enter image description here

Old school campy-ish type

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And here is one installed, having two secure point is essential thouhg as if you have a long extension and only one bolt or mounting point you could get flex and low brake performance. As you can see he has one through the fork and the lower mounting bolt goes beneath to a similar plate on the other side.

enter image description here

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The brazing appears to be for a bottle / friction dynamo. The giveaway is that it's only on the right side. Which means this is a bike from Japan or another left drive country.

Are you sure you have the right size wheels (or fork)? My guess is that the bike was originally 27" but someone replaced with a 700c which is slightly smaller. Or that the fork is for a 27" or larger.

You specifically asked for alternatives to long reach calipers so I won't go into detail, but they are available (I use a tektro r559 but those only go to 73mm) but you might need to find older Weinmans.

My best suggestion that if you don't want to use long reach calipers, replace your wheel set with something bigger like a 27" or 28" (635).

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  • The frame, fork and wheels were all sourced separately so it's no surprise they're not 100% compatible. The fork itself was an impulse buy at a flea market so it's no loss if it needs to go but I'm definitely not replacing the wheel set.
    – Darren L
    Commented Mar 22, 2017 at 6:29
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    The difference beetween a 700 rim and a 27" is only 8 mm diameter (4 mm radius). See sheldonbrown.com/rim-sizing.html first table, entries 4-5.
    – Jahaziel
    Commented Mar 22, 2017 at 19:02
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    Yes, but the OP says that right now, he's at 80mm reach, which is out of scope of most modern roadbike calipers. With a 27", he'd reduce that to 76mm which would mean the Tektro R559 still wouldn't fit but some others (like the current top-voted answer suggest) would.
    – RoboKaren
    Commented Mar 22, 2017 at 19:06
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    I wouldn't be surprised if the fork is intended for 635mm wheel and no front brake at all. The dynamo mount wouldn't be out of place on a bike like that.
    – ojs
    Commented Mar 22, 2017 at 20:52
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    By the way, there's no real rule which side the dynamo goes. I have seen both in Finland and that one mail order shop that still sells bottle dynamos has left and right side versions of the models they have.
    – ojs
    Commented Mar 22, 2017 at 20:57

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