Campag brakes

pdada

I have just purchased a Wilier Gran Tourismo, set up with campag super record and the rear brakes are useless. I am using Mavic K SL rims and these are clean as a wistle with about 800 miles on them from my previous bike. I understand that campag designed them so that the rear brake is slightly less powerful (it's single pivot rather than double). This is so that when you are using both brakes there is less risk of the rear wheel locking up and sliding, however they are so ineffective I am dreading using the bike in the Alps later in the season.
I took the bike into a local shop for some advice and was meet with a shrug and a responce of "as the cable is non stop you are always going to get a lot of give and as the cable is also routed internaly you cant do anything about it"
Any suggestion??? £4K plus spent on a new bike and the thing does not stop!

furrag

What brake pads are you running? Using Kool Stop Salmons/Swiss Stop Flashpro green made the world of difference to me.

Swiss Stop greens are very very good. They wear quickly however. Kool stop salmons have less stopping power, but are far better in the wet and last longer.

magliaceleste

I've been using SR for almost 3 years now (since it came out) and find the braking absolutely superb. The new 2011 brakepads are even better.

Most of your braking power comes from front but it just shouldn't be like you describe. I have no idea what your LBS is wibbling about

There really isn't much to brakes so off the top of my head the possibilities are:

Bad cable routing (loops too tight, outers cut too short etc).
Pinch bolts done up too tight at the caliper, crushes the cable and causes slippage when the brakes are pulled hard
Outers damaged (happens in the shifter sometime, especially if above is true)
Pinch bolts not done up tight enough

Another thing to check is that the brake blocks both engage with the rim at the same time. With the rear brake that means that one block is a bit further away than the other (a bit off centre) IIRC since it is single pivot. Also make sure the blocks aren't too far away from the rim as you'll run out of lever before you get all the power. Just give the cable adjuster a tweak.

One last thing that has come to mind is that there is a small spring tension adjustment you can tweak on the caliper. Take a look at the manual.

Sorry it's a bit of a ramble, just some ideas!