Gimme a brake!

THE INCREDIBLE

WEINMANN 500

BRAKE CALLIPER SALVAGE

Some people may not believe this story, coming from the disposable world we live in today. It's a bit unbelievable when you consider exactly the circumstances. I was pretty amazed myself in fact that a pair of brake callipers that have been rotting for almost two decades in a garden hedge on a badly rusted Peugeot Carbolite from 1985 are now in full working order! 

Here you can see the Weinmann 500 callipers in their respective places. The centre spindles snapped after a bang of a hammer. These were rotten and unusable but it was the two alloy  arms I was after.

I still had my doubts after removing the adjuster barrels and lock nuts even though they opened pretty easily and without any release spray.

I thought the springs would be red rotten but no, not at all only slightly coated with rust. 

I cut the front nuts off with a hack saw in seconds.

I tapped a big flat screwdriver with a hammer and parted the arms from the spindle.

After a bit of donkey work I am left with what I needed.

Next out with the Brillo and scrub, scrub, scrub!

The pair of 500s freed from garden hedge hell!

There was even a date stamp on them. One was made in January 1985 and the other March 1985. Over thirty years old! Insane!

After rebuilding them on another spindle and attaching the barrel adjuster and locking nut. I also used a very fine emery paper sponger block to shine them up.

The spring was still as good as the day it was abandoned amazingly.

Fitted to another Raleigh 18-23 steel frame project and working.

I have to admit it is a testament to the build quality of Weinmann ,and while they were the bog standard alloy brakes on millions of bikes back in the day, they were certainly built to last. I wonder if some of the Taiwanese bike parts of today would stand the test of time like these did!

A little bit about Weinmann Type 500 Side Pull Brakes

Weinmann were based in the town of Schaffhausen in northern Switzerland and have their origins in the late 1930’s. They started appearing in the British market around 1949. They originally made steel brakes but in the late 40’s began to use forged alloy. Prior to 1946 the brakes did not have a model number.

 The Type 500 for close clearances. These were made until their demise in the late 1980’s. These were, for over thirty years, the core product competitively priced. The 500 was always the cheapest option for equipping a close clearance frame, this design was extremely influencial for the major Far Eastern brake manufacturers. There were longer reach versions the 810, 890 and 1020 originally for balloon tyred bikes. The 730 was also made in the 50’s under another model name, ‘Capella’ these are extremely rare.