Brake upgrade

shdaxner

Hi All

I use my road bike as a commuter and recently have started going for rides over the weekend and extending my time on the bike.

The bike is a blast, im now finding i get urges to go for extra rides which is not normally me (im a fat knacker and normally get urges for biscuits) but i found the brakes as standard were a little lack lustre and they did not fill me with confidence on any decents that took me above 30 really. So i upgraded the pads to proper shoes and clarks triple compound pads which have made a difference, albeit a small one.

What im now thinking of is would a small ish upgrade in brakes make a noticeable change, at the moment it has Tektro R730's with the above mentioned pads and shoes, im wondering if a change to maybe SRAM Apex calipers would make a noticeable difference? or, if not SRAM Apex, i have been looking at new Ultegra brakes, abit more expensive but i like how they look.

So does anyone have any experience with any of the above brakes?

Cheers in advance, Stefan

sturmey

I can compare for you the difference in performance between Tiagra 4500 brake calipers and Ultegra 6600 brake calipers.Both using standard pads.The Tiagra ones slow you down.The Ultegras howl you down.

night_porter

I think those Tektro brakes are deep drop brakes to allow for mudguard clearance. To be honest the calipers are just a mechanical thing which convert the power so will not make a great deal of difference. If you want the brakes to work better then new cables and the best soft pads you can buy will give you the best improvement.

Koolstop and Swisstop are both highly regarded and as you already have the cartridge holders you will only need the pads.

TRy the pads 1st and if you want more then it is likely the cables, you will need to change both the inner and the outer to get the very best out of them.

MikeMc

Try giving the braking surface of the rims a good clean with Isopropal alcohol, your new pads may also need to be cleaned if they have been contaminated by any build up on the rims.

shdaxner

sturmey wrote:

I can compare for you the difference in performance between Tiagra 4500 brake calipers and Ultegra 6600 brake calipers.Both using standard pads.The Tiagra ones slow you down.The Ultegras howl you down.

So does this mean the Ultegras are much better or make a load of noise?

Seems new pads and cables are the menu of the day then, will order some inserts later today once I have decided which ones to get...... Hmm black, salmon or dual compound?

Also had a quick look at cables and found some by jagwire which are both derailleur cables and brake cables in a set, these any good?

http://www.totalcycling.com/road-components/brake_cables/CB_JAGWIRE_RACER.html

Cheers again

night_porter

As I said before you will only need to change the cables if just changing the pads does not work. But if you are going to put coloured cables on to increase the bling then these Jagwires are hard to beat. I like to replace the whole cableset once a year (8,000+ miles) because they make everything feel better on the bike.

Incidently I do agree with MikeMc that cleaning the brake surfaces might just give you enough of an improvement but I would also lightly file the top surface off of the pads to ensure there is no greasy contamination there either.