Padded shoe brake, particularly for bicycles

A padded shoe brake particularly for bicycles, comprising a pair of shoe pads adapted to frictionally engage a wheel rim, and shoe pad control and guiding means operative to move said shoe pads to and from said wheel rim while maintaining said shoe pads at a position of substantial symmetry with respect to said wheel rim, wherein

• said shoe pads have a rim-contacting surface of hollow shape and adapted to continuously encompass both sides and an inner annular portion of said wheel rim, said control and guiding means being mechanically structured to bring said shoe pads closer to said wheel rim along paths substantially terminated between said sides and inner annular portions of said wheel rim, and wherein said control and guiding means comprise two guiding arms located adjacent one section of a wheel and extending obliquely between the direction of the wheel axis and the plane containing said wheel, as well as being convergent toward each other such as to define a seat substantially accommodating said wheel section, two slider supports slidably mounted on said arms and engaging said shoe pads at a position facing said wheel rim, and control elements adapted to symmetrically drive said slider supports along said arms, so as to move said shoe pads into and out of engagement with said wheel rim.