So far, I had two non-aero levers with hoods, paired with side pull calipers. (Fig 1 and 3),
and two Weinmann levers, one with cantis (fig 2) and one with side pull calipers (fig 4).
Not only were those builds stretched over a couple of years, the different brake and brake pad types make it hard to compare the levers. I remember that the last bike with Weinmann levers (fig 4) had relatively poor stopping power, whereas the cantilever paired Weinmanns (fig 2) worked just fine, subjectively surpassed by both road bike levers (fig 1 and 3) with again different brake types.
My question is:
I have a build at hand with Weinmann 750 Center pull brakes (yet another brake type) and I have a spare pair of those Weinmann levers from fig 2/4. is it reasonable to expect that the road levers as in fig 1/3 (BA-100 Dura Ace resp. BL-6207 600EX levers) have a better stopping performance paired with a centrepull brake than those City Weinmann levers? If so, I won’t spare the expanse of better performing road levers. IIRC, it comes down to how much cable a lever can pull, and the road levers seem to have more pull.
While at it, which type of koolstopp brake pads do you recommend? There are these short brick style Weinmann replicas but I am intrigued to get some standard road brake shimano type ones, as a Center pull basically is a road brake? I have read though that longer brake pads actually have a counterintuitive negative impact on brake performance.
Thank you for reading my ted talk, just looking for my best options, the bike is for my daughter and I want it to brake at the best achievable level with those center pulls
by PiotrSanctuvich