Refurbishing Schwinn Approved Weinmann Brakes

 I had a couple of free hours on a recent, rainy Sunday afternoon, so I spent some time cleaning up a set of neglected Weinmann 810 "Schwinn Approved" brakes I had recently gotten from a junk merchant. These came of a scrapped Schwinn Traveler from the late 1950s.

Above, you can see one finished caliper and one that still needs cleaning and rebuilding. The shiny caliper on the left is ready to go, and the dull one on the right needs to still be done. I use my Dremel tool and drill press to clean these up. First, I strip them apart and wash everything with Dawn Power Wash (I recommend Power Wash if you haven't tried it yet). Then I use a brass wire brush attachment to knock off the rust, and then a polishing wheel to shine the caliper arms.

 

Above are the two finished calipers - shiny and ready for a project bike.

The Weinmann 810 brakes are underappreciated by riders and collectors for many years. They're reasonably lightweight, not overly difficult to adjust, and provide acceptable stopping power in dry conditions, for a vintage caliper of the 1950s-60s. 

I appreciate that the bolt on these calipers has two sets of threads, allowing adjustment of the caliper arm tightness separately from the overall caliper mounting tightness on the frame/fork. 

Traditional British and American side-pull calipers have a single thread on the bolt, meaning that when you tighten the caliper to the frame or fork, you also are increasing the tension on the caliper arm movement. If you try to really tighten the caliper down on the frame or fork, you'll often find that it causes the arms to bind.You need to find a compromise between arm tension and caliper mount snugness.

 With these Weinmanns, you can attach the caliper snugly using the back threads, and fine tune just the arm tension using the front threads. It helps dial-in the calipers more easily and with more confidence. I also appreciate the use of aluminum to help keep weight down and reduce the issues with rust. These caliper arms shine up nicely with a little polish and a buffing wheel.

Finally, spare parts for these are still plentiful and not overly expensive. I bought these calipers for around $12, and they come complete. I've bought several sets for around $10-15 per set, depending on how clean they are. Spare parts can still be found on eBay and similar sources.