Lovely wheels, but can't stop

bice
bice Posts: 772
edited March 2010 in Road beginners
I acquired some Mavic MA 40 Campag wheels which I use on a c.1985 Ciocc frame. They look great, and work well in every respect - except the braking is awful even with Kollstop Salmons. As this is my nice weather London commuter, this is a consideration.

Were these wheels notoriously bad for braking? It has got to the point where I am thinking of putting a Bontrager wheel from a Trek 1.7 on the front, which won't look good at all. Any thoughts?

Comments

  • balthazar
    balthazar Posts: 1,565
    MA-40 was a hard anodised (dark) variant of MA-2. The anodising on the braking track impairs braking until it's worn off, at which stage it's the same as any other aluminium rim. Machined rim sides came in a little after anodised ones did, to avoid this "wearing in" period, and the consequent "scruffy" look, among other reasons. Just ride them in the rain for a bit, braking in the gritty water will wear the coating off quickly.

    MA-40 rims were also fairly well known for fatigue failures in the rim bed around the spoke nipple, a problem caused by the anodising. Hopefully you'll be one of the lucky ones..!
  • bice
    bice Posts: 772
    I swapped the front wheel over to one of my other bikes and it stopped fine. The cause is my old style single pivot 105 brakes, which are no good.

    I have just bought a set of dual pivot 105s for £27. Strange, because I have some single pivot Campag brakes which are great (on a third bike).

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