Resilion "Cantilever" front brake rebuild
... how to stop a vintage bike with no brake mounting hole in the fork crown
On my workbench at present is the Resilion "Cantilever" front brake pictured below. First released in 1929, these were the best brakes available in the 30's and 40's. When well set up, they promised smooth and strong braking, however were expensive for the times. The long brake blocks also added to the stopping power - they're as long as V brake pads and in fact will fit a modern V brake pad, and apparently stop as well as a modern non-disc brake.
Here is a great article on the Resilion brake and its history, on the website 'Classic Lightweights UK'
This set was once fully chromed, and in its past had undergone a rough repaint after losing some of its shine to light rust. A new and hopefully better repaint will see it through quite a few more years of use, plus it will look much nicer with new cable outers. I had thought to cover the cable outers with shrink tube, change the pads, and install the brakes as is...but the urge to tinker was too great, and I'm glad I did, as once I'd removed the paint I was able to treat the rust lurking underneath.
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| Speedwell 'Z' framed racer |
Here's the bike it will be used on - currently a fixed/freewheel flipflop hub with no brakes or mounting holes for brakes. The previous owner thought it may be a 30's Speedwell, but I've been reliably informed that it's a 'trade frame' - made by Speedwell, for others to sell with their own branding.
I got excited when I thought I had a '39 date stamped into the BB, but experts have indicated it's more likely to be early to mid forties. The cranks aren't stamped, so no date codes there. The original paint on the rims (under the red spray paint) shows that the bike would have once been salmon with blue highlights. 99% of the original frame paint is gone.
Resilion brakes were certainly used in Australia, but I imagine would have been a rarity - and would most likely have fallen completely out of favour by WW2, with cheaper and simpler caliper and cantilever brakes being available post war. For quite a few decades here in Oz, stopping power was popularly provided by either a single speed coaster brake or a clamp on Philco rear centre-pull brake, often as the only brake. Philco also made a clamp-on front brake, but I chose not to use one as I'd read that their stopping power is marginal. This bike will be a rider; I want it to stop when I tell it to, and I don't want to drill the fork crown, so the Resilion will do the job for me.
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| Resilion three way cable joiner |
Back to the workbench: what to ponder is how to successfully re-cable?? The upper single inner cable is attached to the lower Left and Right inner cables with the use of the above piece of metal - this three way cable splitter is usually hidden inside the 'cable splitter housing'. Now that I've cut the cables to dismantle the brakes, how will I replicate this three way inner cable join? I'll have to de-braze the cable splitter to possibly reuse it, and you'll have to wait for a follow-up post to find out if it worked.
The two tubes either side of the spring, plus the spring itself, form a kind of sprung piston. This miniature spring piston returns the brakes to their 'resting' state. The cable bars anchor the ends of the L and R brake inner cables, and each cable bar clips into their pair of brake side plates, which in turn stiffens each brake unit. If you scroll back up to the advertisement image, you can see the return piston situated between the brake cable anchor post and the cable bar.
Missing from the above photo is the brake block holder - these were on a different part of the bench undergoing surgery for pad removal as the original pads were too hard and crumbly to keep. Kool stop dual compound V brake pads are ordered and in the mail.
The parts including brake block holders are now stripped, de-rusted, and zinc primered, ready for a top coat of satin black.
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