Road brake calipers

JonEdwards

I've currently got a Sora caliper on my commuter fixie.

Having recently upped the gear ratio, I'd also like to up my stopping power a little. (it's adequate at the moment, but not exactly eyeball popping) I'm already running alloy shoes with koolstop salmon pads.

Do more expensive calipers (eg 105/Ultegra) actually offer significantly increased performance over the cheaper ones or is it merely weight and quality of finish? At what point does the cost/performance ratio go funky?

...and who's brakes are better - Shimano Campag or SRAM? I've got oldish Records on my roadbike, and whilst they stop better than the Soras, they ain't the same as the 8" Hydro discs on my MTBs...

Thank y'all!

redddraggon

Both my sets of Centaur (Skeleton and pre-Skeleton) both have really good stopping power with the standard pads. My set of Tektro Calipers (with Centaur pads) don't stop the bike nearly half as well.

acorn_user

New pads!

Kool Stop, Fibrax, Swissstop. Pick whichever you can get.

gkerr4

i agree that the calipers make a difference - I replaced unbranded ones on my trek with shimano R600 and they were much better - both sets had been tested with the koolstop salmon pads.

be careful picking calipers - if you have shimano levers then you need a caliper with a quick release lever on the caliper (campag quick release is on the levers)

e999sam

I use Ultegra with std pads. They work well I often lock up my back wheel. In the wet the performance drops off a lot I've been caught out a couple of times. Also the pads don,t last to long.

cannonfodder

Campag calipers used to be miles ahead of shimano, but now Shimano seem to have caught up.

The rear Skeleton brake is now a single pivot to make it less likely to lock up,