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I have a beautiful titanium frame made by Van Nicholas. Unfortunately it uses long reach rim brake calipers front and rear (branded Van Nicholas, but I would say tektro made). They are pretty ugly and I want to upgrade to Ultegra calipers. On the front I can change the fork for a short reach one, so all good, but on the rear the ultegra caliper would be too high and won't reach the braking surface on rim. Do you have any suggestion about mount adapters, caliper extensions I can use to adapt and lower the rear Ultegra caliper?

Thanks a lot for your help.

Paolo

Paolo Goatspeed
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    Usually long-reach calipers are needed to reach past fat tires. If you put short-reach brakes on, would they clear the tires? – Adam Rice Jan 19 '22 at 19:04
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    Adding a couple of photos of the brake areas may help here. – Criggie Jan 19 '22 at 21:15
  • Not a dupe, but relevant https://bicycles.stackexchange.com/questions/77984/front-brake-lacks-2mm-in-reach-can-it-be-ironed-out – Criggie Jan 20 '22 at 04:25
  • Yes, I know as well about the flex I might add with an adapter to lower the caliper, but on a road bike for me brakes are just to slow down, not like on a mtb, so I guess the flex will be acceptable. – Paolo Goatspeed Jan 23 '22 at 18:11
  • Yes, the frame is a touring frame and was designed to be able to go up to 32mm tyres, but I use it as my road bike, with 25, sometimes max 28mm tyres. It is enough fr what I do. I checked the link, but... The story of something strange the guy wanted to do to his calipers i didn't get. There are on the market some calipers lowers, I am just looking for the right shape one... I wouldn't di it on the for, but and the rear should work. Thanks for your help. – Paolo Goatspeed Jan 23 '22 at 19:00

1 Answers1

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In some cases people have made drop bolts to solve problems like this, but most of the time that's not an appropriate solution compared to just using the right reach brake. Adapters add flex you don't want and disallow use of the tire size the bike is presumably made for that got it to needing longer-than-short-reach brakes in the first place.

Shimano makes 47-57mm brakes in both pre- and post-Super SLR versions (made for STIs with the shift cables outside and under the tape, respectively). I believe the most recent models are BR-R451 and BR-R650, but that has changed over the years. Use those if that is the reach class your frame needs. They don't say Ultegra on them but they are good brakes.

If it wants longer than 57mm, that gets into choosing from a small number of very specific brakes. Also if that were true, changing out the fork is a bad idea because the front end geometry change you're creating to do so won't be all that negligible anymore.

Nathan Knutson
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  • Also, the OP could consider third party companies like TRP, Velo Orange, and Tektro. – Weiwen Ng Jan 19 '22 at 19:53
  • Well, the goal itself is to change fork. My bike has quite an old school fork and I would like to upgrade to a more modern one. Yes quite a lot of work for an old school frame, but it is worth it. It is a Ti frame made by Van Nicholas for the company where I work, Backroads. – Paolo Goatspeed Jan 23 '22 at 18:08