What Brakes?

richen

Hi,

a bit new to road biking and riding in all the wet weather recently i have found that the tektro brakes that came as standard on my Giant are very weak.
so not knowing anything about road brakes what should i upgrade to?

crc have the 105's at £60 a pair or Ultrgas for £90 both get well reviewed, is it worth paying the extra for the Ultragas, or the Planet X cnc brakes are on offer for £89 as well, would these be a better bet?

or is there anything else to consider for this price point?

any expieriences or knowledge woudl be greatly appreciated.

for info
I ride around 20 miles a day on alu rims, in all weathers.

thanks for your input.

Gabbo

Grab yourself a bargain - http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Sear ... ram+brakes

SRAM Red are suppose to be marginally better than SRAM Force, but are lighter.

I believe that SRAM and Shimano can be mixed up (unless it's mechanisms) so pull ratio shouldn't be an issue

iPete

Try some swissstop green or koolstop salmon pads first.

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/swissstop-flash ... ance-pads/

Grill

iPete wrote:

Try some swissstop green or koolstop salmon pads first.

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/swissstop-flash ... ance-pads/

This.

Gabbo

Grill wrote:

iPete wrote:

Try some swissstop green or koolstop salmon pads first.

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/swissstop-flash ... ance-pads/

This.

Yup! These are also provided with SRAM Force brakes. Very good pads

richen

Swisstop pads seem to be out of stock in a lot of places and spending £45 on blocks would almost be as much as buying one new Sram caliper that comes with swisstop pads anyway.

my shimano shifters are compatible with 5700, 6700 and 9700 brakes so should be compatible with the SRAM red brakes then?

thanks for the replys.

Grill

Here you go:
http://www.bike-discount.de/shop/a9282/brake-pads-flash-pro-ghp-ii-green-4-pcs.html?lg=en&cr=GBP&cn=gb

Not sure where you're getting this 45 quid figure as one set comes with all 4 pads...

richen

i think it would cost £45ish as the pads on the tektro brakes are non-cartridge, so I would have to buy the whole pad and holder which makes it a lot more expensive.
the black ones are £21.50 and the green ones are £25 on Wiggle.
thank you for the link to the other site, will have an explore on there as well.

richen

Thanks for the link to the shop Grill,
managed to get a set of 105 calipers and some swissstop green pads for £77 posted.
seemed like the best way to go. guaranteed compatibility with current shifters and best pads.
thanks for the help and advice.

rolf_f

richen wrote:

guaranteed compatibility with current shifters and best pads.
thanks for the help and advice.

There's not really any such thing as brake compatibility with shifter - you pull on the brake lever, the brake lever moves the cable, the cable moves the brake arms.

The cheapest solution to convert to cartridges and high quality pads is to get cheap cartridge brakes - eg these at £12.40 for two sets; http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/sp/road-t ... arabrbl225

You can then use them up (maybe in the Summer when pad composition is less critical - or just use the Barradine pads on the rear) before replacing the pads with Swisstops - 2 pairs for £20. You've then used up one set of Barradine pads and got a full set of Swisstops in cartridges for a total of £32. Just to buy two pairs of Swisstops and their cartridges would cost about £48 from Wiggle and then you don't have the additional pads.

Usefully cheaper than £77 and just as effective (though less blingy).

richen

hi Rolf,

thanks for the idea, shame that those are out of stock as it would be a cheap way of doing it,
whilst it would have been half the price of doing it the way i have done it, i feel that buying the new calipers and the new pads is prob the way forward, I still get two sets of full pads and a better overall set of brakes which should be a lot more confidence inspiring than the ones i currently have.
and i would have bought new brakes at some point, so may as well do it all together

zx6man

iPete wrote:

Try some swissstop green or koolstop salmon pads first.

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/swissstop-flash ... ance-pads/

agreed

p1tse

I'm thinking I would like to give the swisstop green pads a whirl in the near future

I'm not sure what pads I have at the moment , but standard on my br561 shimano brakes from my cube.
Will the pads just be a straight swap or will it need cartridges as I read above ?