Short Reach Brakes versus Long Reach Brakes
The best part of designing bikes is coming up with solutions. Often this comes about from an offhand comment from a rider. When I hear it, I realize I can bring more to the bicycle design than either of us planned on originally. Here’s an example. I recently built a Georgena Terry Gale Force bicycle for a rider who mentioned that the roads in her area were really rough. Steel bikes are great at absorbing road shock, but a wider tire can help as well.
The problem is that a traditional road bike uses a “short reach brake”, which may limit the width of the tire that can be used. It’s often not possible to use tires wider than 25mm (1 inch) with this kind of brake. As the tire gets wider, it gets taller. And there’s the rub — literally. The wider tire is too close to the underside of the brakes. Imagine picking up a small stone and having it jam between the tire and brake. Not good.
“Long reach brakes” solve this problem. The arms of the brake are about 8mm (.3 inch) longer than the arms on short reach brakes. If a bike is specced with this brake, the rider can use wider tires. So when my customer mentioned rough roads, I offered her the option of long reach brakes so she could put wider tires on her bike. A simple solution that added versatility to the bike. Unfortunately, you can’t just swap out your short reach brakes for long reach brakes to solve this problem. The bike has to be built for one style or the other.
Comments
Thanks for info on different types of brakes
I learned something new today.
Always a good thing.
Thank you for the article.
I have a question related to the interchangeablilty of short/long reach brakes. You mentioned “Unfortunately, you can’t just swap out your short reach brakes for long reach brakes”.
The short reach brakes on my roadie have seized. I have a spare set of long reach brakes. The reach of these brakes overlap a little between 47 to 49mm. Can I replace the broken brakes with this set of longer reach brakes, assuming the reach is ok? Or are long reach brakes simply not meant to be fitted on a roadie that originally had short reach brakes?
Can you please advise me. Many thanks.
Hi,
The long reach brakes might work. You won’t know until you try them. As long as the brake pads fully contact the side of the rim, they’ll be fine. It’s going to come down to the distances between the brake holes and the wheel axle. If the pads on your short reach brakes are at the bottom of their slots, then long reach brakes might work with the pads at the top of their slots.
Good luck!
Thanks. Yes I really should give it a try and find out for myself. It is as you said, I believe I can put the pads at around 49mm and they lined up well with the rims. I was just worried that with the longer arms, there might be some compatability issues such as the arms not having enough braking force (or not enough force). If the only issue is the long reach brakes not looking as pleasing on the roadie, then I’m fine with it.
Anyway I’ll slap them on and go for a ride to test them out.
Thanks for the reply. Cheers!