For our Compass centerpull brakes, we started with a design that had proven itself in decades of hard use: the Mafac Raid brakes. In fact, we had logged tens of thousands of miles on our own bikes with these brakes. We thought hard about how to improve them, but apart from a few minor tweaks, the Mafacs appear unimprovable. The one thing we could improve is the quality. The original Raids were budget parts – well-designed, but the finish and tolerances often were mediocre.
That means that the Compass brakes use old-style canti brake shoes, which have a few significant advantages.
- The brake arm isn’t twisted to accommodate the bolt-on brake shoes. This makes it stiffer and lighter.
- You can slide the brake shoe inward as the pads wear, so there is no need for barrel adjusters or other mechanisms to take up pad wear. Since you’ll reset the pad angle, there is less risk of the pad starting to cut into your tire as it wears and hits the rim higher up.
- Adjusting the pad angle is easier, because you can grip the pad holder as you tighten the bolt.
Mafac used to make a nifty tool to hold the pad holder in place as you tighten the nut. Grand Bois has re-introduced this tool, and we have it in stock. It’s beautifully finished, but most of all, it makes working on centerpull brakes (whether Compass or Mafac) so much easier.
We made sure our hardware is interchangeable with the classic Mafac brakes, since we could not improve upon their design.
So if you have a brakeset with sloppy bushings or rusty bolts, you can rejuventate them with our Replacement Hardware Kit. The arms themselves never wear out. Polish them up, and install the new hardware, and your brakes look and perform better than new.
To remove and install the bushings in the brake arms, Compass offers a simple tool. Use a hammer and gently tap the old bushings out of the brake arms. Then use the same tool to tap in the new bushings.
The holes for the Mafac pivot bushings have somewhat loose tolerances, so we recommend reaming the holes in the brake arms to make sure that our bushings fit. You need a 10 H7 reamer (10 means 10 mm, H7 is the tolerance of the fit), which is available in good hardware stores.
Kool-Stop offers replacement brakes pads for Mafac brakes. They come in the normal length (4-dot) or extra-long for tandems (5-dot). Kool-Stop offers them both in their excellent salmon-colored compound for superior wet-weather brakes, and in black for restorations. We use them on the Compass brakes, and also sell them separately.
For the straddle cable hanger, we could not resist using the lovely René Herse rollers. Apart from the domed nut that is a slightly taller shape (so it will not bottom out, unlike the originals), the René Herse straddle cable hanger is an exact replica of the original, which is great for restorations of classic René Herse bikes. Of course, they also work great on other bikes. You have the option of letting the roller turn, which automatically centers the brake every time you apply it. If your brake springs have uneven tension, you can reverse the screw that holds the roller so that it does not turn. Then you can set the straddle cable position where you want it, and it won’t change. It’s a smart design – once again, we could not improve upon it.
We also offer replacement straddle cables for some Mafac 2000 brakes. They also fit some “Competition” models, but the straddle cable hanger may be higher than before. Fortunately, with centerpull brakes, the mechanical advantage does not change significantly with straddle cable height. (These straddle cables do not work for brakes that require the ball-end straddle cables.)
The Compass brakes use a standard shifter cable as the straddle cable, so you won’t need to worry about spare parts availability.
Click here for information about these and other Compass brake parts.
