A Photo Says More than 1000 Words

This photo shows our Compass centerpull brake with the straddle cable released. (It also shows a Rinko fender, and a Babyshoe Pass Extralight tire after about 5000 kilometers…) More than a thousand words, this photo explains the design of our brakes:

• The arms fit around 42 mm-wide tires and fenders with generous clearances.
• You can install the wheel with its 42 mm tire inflated. (Most other brakes for wide tires require deflating the tire every time you remove the wheel.)
• The brake is dimensioned so the pads are about 2/3 of the way down – not at the limit. This gives you some room for adjustments.
• When the pads wear, it’s easy to slide them a bit further inward, without having to completely re-adjust the brake.

With the straddle cable closed, you can see how nicely the arms are profiled to fit over the fender. It’s a small detail, but it makes the bike so much more beautiful. (It’s also one of the reasons why the brake opens so wide.)
The slender arms don’t just look nice, but they also make this one of the lightest brakes on the market – lighter than Dura-Ace racing brakes. We used Finite Element Analysis to optimize the brakes’ stiffness, so they offer excellent braking power and superb modulation. And the arms are forged, not CNC-machined, so they are plenty strong despite their superlight weight.
Fender clearances are an important topic for “real-world” bicycles. The photos show 20 mm clearance between frame and tire. That is more than you find on most “fender-ready” bikes today. But there is a good reason for this: With that much clearance, the fender won’t rub even if a fender stay gets bent. More importantly, small debris will clear the fender rather than risk getting stuck and cause the fender to collapse and jam against the frame.

Of course, you don’t want so much fender clearance that the bike has that “Motocross” look, but my “Mule”, the bike you see in the photos here, is far from that. A bike with well-judged fender clearances looks graceful, yet it’s supremely functional.

Our brakes come with detailed instructions on how to get all these clearances right. The Compass brakes are part of a system: They work perfectly with our superlight CP-1 rack. Our centerpull braze-ons are pre-mitered to fit Kaisei “Toei Special” fork blades. Of course, you can also use other components, but this system makes it easier to build a bike that is both beautiful and functional.

Beauty, light weight, performance and superior function in every way – that is what we strive for with every Compass part we design.
Click here for more information about our brakes.