Brakes

Flasheart

After last Sunday's rather hilly ride on the Isle of Wight I thought I had better check the wear on my brake pads. They're fine it would seem. I never fell off the edge of the island :P
Reading on these boards about varous chainsets (which include brakes I gather) I get the feeling that there are varying degrees of quality of brakes.
My cube has a Tiagra Chainset and brakes, what difference would my brakes be against a 105 , Ultegra or Dura-ace or even Sora for that matter?
Wouldnt it come down to which pads you were using in the end?

redddraggon

Set up is the most important and Pads are the second most important, but callipers have different qualities. Generally the difference is rather negligible.

I have 3 bikes with Campag levers (which is important), two of them have the same pads - 2006 Centaur callipers and Tektro - The centaur brakes work loads better.

Apparently SRAM make the best "standard" road callipers though.

Flasheart

If I'm capable of squeezing the brake levers from the drops so that my wheels can stop dead at speed (which I can easily but don't as I have an aversion to headbutting roads etc. ) what differences are there? Is it asthetics, weight, brand?

fnegroni

Weight mostly.
Styling.
A bit also ease of adjustment: 105 has small screw to center, others use 1mm hex key, some others don't even have the screw.
Quality of components versus performance versus reliability versus weight.
Also some suffer from torsional flex.

Taken all of the above into consideration, if the brakes you have now work well and don't weigh a ton, I would spend my money on things that really matter: frame/wheels/bottombracket...

Flasheart

Thanks for the informative replies guys
I think I'll just keep the brakes and upgrade the pads, Kool-stop Salmon or Swisstop Green that I read about, as the roads are going to get wetter for a few months.

Garz

They seems to be what people are raving about flasheart, when my pads wear a bit more I shall order some of those.

sicknote

Garz wrote:

They seems to be what people are raving about flasheart, when my pads wear a bit more I shall order some of those.

I am thinking of not waiting as I would prefer the better braking

hodsgod

Flasheart wrote:

If I'm capable of squeezing the brake levers from the drops so that my wheels can stop dead at speed (which I can easily but don't as I have an aversion to headbutting roads etc. ) what differences are there? Is it asthetics, weight, brand?

Post of the year in my opinion, if you can stop the wheels what more do you need to do. It is just about skill, tyres and road conditions after that.

The rest is just weight or snobbery.

sicknote

hodsgod wrote:

Flasheart wrote:

If I'm capable of squeezing the brake levers from the drops so that my wheels can stop dead at speed (which I can easily but don't as I have an aversion to headbutting roads etc. ) what differences are there? Is it asthetics, weight, brand?

Post of the year in my opinion, if you can stop the wheels what more do you need to do. It is just about skill, tyres and road conditions after that.

The rest is just weight or snobbery.

I might have something to do with the time it takes to stop

redddraggon

hodsgod wrote:

Flasheart wrote:

If I'm capable of squeezing the brake levers from the drops so that my wheels can stop dead at speed (which I can easily but don't as I have an aversion to headbutting roads etc. ) what differences are there? Is it asthetics, weight, brand?

Post of the year in my opinion, if you can stop the wheels what more do you need to do. It is just about skill, tyres and road conditions after that.

The rest is just weight or snobbery.

Stopping my wheels far too effectively has caused me to crash.

Garz

Sicknote wrote:

I am thinking of not waiting as I would prefer the better braking

But my current brakes stop me enough, not splashing any cash unless I have to..

Also:

Stopping my wheels far too effectively has caused me to crash.

Reinforces my statement.