brakes for old road bike

[wombat 23]

My old 1970s Gitane has some dodgy dual pivot (road style) brakes complete with suicide levers. It's time to replace them with something safer. Any advice on good quality brake sets not too expensive that can easily be fitted to the frame

[timbo]

I can't recommend any specific brake calipers, but having a 1970's bike means it probably has 27inch rims which are slightly larger than the current 700C rims, so getting a set of brake calipers with enough reach so the brake blocks contact the rims is your main concern.
The likes of Ebay should find you some reasonably priced brakesets.

[rkelsen]

When you say that it has dual pivot brakes, are you talking about centre-pulls?

If so, then a modern caliper probably won't be much better. All you need to do is clean them up, put some better pads in and install new cables and you'll have better brakes than a modern road bike.

[TedDancin]

When you say that it has dual pivot brakes, are you talking about centre-pulls? If so, then a modern caliper probably won't be much better. .

I agree, I think old centre-pulls are great. I run them on my commuter with aero brake levers and they work very nicely. You just have to be careful that you do up the cable bolt tightly, as there is the potential for the extra leverage to pull the cable out, which makes it hard to stop.