Not light weight, but Campa Delta (take faceplate off)

[Frankie - B]

Please help me. How does one take off the faceplate of a Delta 2nd gen brake?

Thanks

[Rippin]

Squeeze the pads together, push up the circular base (has the thin rubber in the middle that goes all the way around the circumference) that's located below the cable adjuster, then pull out the face plate.

[Frankie - B]

Ah, Thanks for letting me know! Are there any more things I need to know? My brakes are second generation. They don't have the rubber ring around the base ring yet.

[Rippin]

I just checked the delta generations and I have the 3rd and 4th gen. I'm assuming removing the face plates are the same, though, after looking at some 2nd gen pictures.

[Frankie - B]

Well, it seems the 2nd gen is the same as all the others. Wow, I didn't know it was that easy. The brakes look great on the inside as well. The only spot where they have collected some scratches is on the underside (closest to the tire). Should that be polished or left as it is?

[peruffo]

The older Deltas were designed for traditional brake levers, the 3-4th gen for Ergos. The latter have a more complex parallelogramm mechanism. What lever are you planning to use? The 1-2 gen are lighter, but does not work well with brifters.

[Frankie - B]

Wow, thanks for that info. To be totally honest I'm planning on selling them. I have a matching set of record brake levers for them as well. so if I wanted to use them I still could. Now I need to find that 3.5mm Allen key.

[peruffo]

Not many hardware store stock 3.5 mm allen keys... If you decide to use the Deltas, search the net for proper setup (it's tricky!), don't expect miracles from 1-2 gen. There are 3 "cookoo in the nest" road brake designs: Deltas, Shimano AX, Modolo/Weinmann. From these, the Deltas are most beatiful, Shimanos have the best performance (power and modulation), Modolos are the lightest. None of them succeed in more than one attributes. Then came double pivot, which is not perfect in any of these, but no no major weakness: good enough for asphalt riding.

[Frankie - B]

It seems that 3.5 mm allen keys are better available in countries that use the metric system. When i find a few should i make them available to other Delta users?

[peruffo]

Campagnolo originally supplied the Delta brakes with allen key for installation. If someone uses Deltas, he already has one, since it's not possible to install them w/o 3.5 mm key. When I sold my Deltas (1th gen), I shipped the allen key with it. Why sell them? A Korean businessman was prepared to pay $600, I could buy a Principia with Dura Ace 7700 + training wheels for this amount!

[Frankie - B]

I just rode over to the hardware store and bought a 3.5 mm key for €0.75. i need that key to get the old brake cable out of the brakes. I hope that the same Korean business man is still around and willing to pay that much

[peruffo]

1st gen is very rare, it was VGC (see pic)! This is not the original brake pad holder/barrel adjuster, this is how I used them (more practical), but had the originals as well.

[Wingnut]

Beautiful brakes, I've got three pairs...two Record & one pair of Croce D'Aune which I'm never selling...ever!

[Frankie - B]

Here are mine. Second gen is known for its fading logo.



this is another treasure.

[peruffo]

If you want to use it you can solve 2 major problems: replace the barrel adjuster (for a hybrid 2-4 gen like I did) and replace the prake pad+holder. The former will be nicer and really allow adjustment, the latter lets you conserve the valuable original brake pads and provide better power and modulation. You can go as far as using carbon rim pads this way...

Concerning the faceplate, take the anodization off and polish it, or reanodize to gold, and you'll have a Colnago annyversary gold replica! (You already seem to have a gold crankset...)