Brake pads

Turnbull2000

My 1 year old Bontrager Race X Lite front wheel is suffering from poor braking at the moment. Installed fresh Dura-ace brake pads and rubbed down the rim, but there's still no improvement. Short of replacing the wheel (which I can't afford anyway!), are there any brake pads out there that might be more effective?

N0bodyOfTheGoat

Koolstop "salmon" pads may help.

Turnbull2000

Thanks. Anybody have any experience of these? Had a quick Google, and a few people claimed they're pretty loud and screachy.

richa

Were youre brakes working ok before? Have they been serviced recently so that they bight as you start to apply them?

Turnbull2000

RichA wrote:

Were youre brakes working ok before? Have they been serviced recently so that they bight as you start to apply them?

They've been a bit iffy for a little while now. Could it be that the cable is stretching when under tension?

richa

How much of a 'handfull' of the brake lever do you have to grab before they engage. I find that after having had my bike serviced (and the brakes tuned) they engage almost immediately, a few months later and more & more pull is required befor engaging (as cable stretches), which makes the brakes less effective. If you have replaced the pads I reckon a service is next.

Turnbull2000

There's a screw to make adjustments and contact is pretty immediate. But either the contact isn't firm enough or my rims are worn after 12 months

John C.

Kool stop, All my bikes have them now, they work !

onbike 1939

While Salmon are good pads, before you buy try roughing-up the surfaces of your original pads with a coarse file. This does away with the glaze that can cause poor braking and it's cured many a complaint.

Turnbull2000

Thanks for all the suggestions. Has anyone attempted to roughen up a wheel rim?

Nigel Bennett

Roughening up wheel-rims with a coarse file sounds rather dodgy to me - I'd never do that. All that would do is rip out chunks of brake pad when you braked. Don't do it!

What I have done is to polish the braking surfaces with some Scotchbrite (or seme very fine emery paper) to get rid of the glaze.

Braking also depends on the nature of the brake cable inner - there are inners and inners. I bought some "Jagwire" ones a while back and couldn't undertand how crap my new (to me) Dura-Ace brakes were. Until I fitted a decent inner cable (not made from spaghetti) and that made a HUGE difference. I threw all the Jagwire ones away.

kmahony

Koolstop salmons will help.

I had a similar problem this year with a one year old bike. Changing the cables (inner and outer) sorted the problem. After just a year, the ends of the outer were badly frayed and rusty! This was making braking much more springy.