New Brake Calipers or Just Pads?

chilledoutdude

Dear All,

I believe this question has appeared numerous times on your site and I suppose the general answer would be to buy new pads before you buy new callipers.

Anyhow, I was recently involved in an accident and I am in the process of getting parts together to fix my bike. Currently, my bike is setup with a Tiagra groupset (4500 9 speed) with Tiagra brakes and right before my accident, I felt my braking power was very weak, and not particularly responsive especially when compared to my friends recent bike with a full 105 setup (105-5700).

From my research, it appears I should either purchase a set of Swiss Stop Pro Greens, or KoolStop Salmons, before upgrading the calipers, and because of my Tiagra brakes I will need to purchase the option with a brake shoe. My dilemma is that I can buy a set of brand new 105 brake callipers for roughly £50 (including the brake shoe with stock Shimano pads) for the same price as a two Swiss Stop FullFlashPro Green (front & rear)?

It seems crazy to spend so much on the pads when you could just upgrade both brakes. Therefore, I was wondering if upgrading my brake calliper from a Tiagra (4500) to a 105 (5700) will make any difference at all or will the pads really produce the most difference?

Any help or assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

rolf_f

1) Get cheap cartridge pad set (you can get some from Ribble for about £12 for front and back).
2) Get Swissstop or Koolstop set of pads (£20 front and back)
3) Put cheap pads on back (which has little effect) and put expensive pads on front.

Total investment £32 and you save wasting expensive pads on the back. The Swisssstop cartridge holders/shoes are no better than the cheap ones.

Changing the calipers won't make any difference and you'll still need new pads if you want the Swissstop performance.

adambutterwick

Braking force comes from the friction between the pad and the wheel, so factors affecting braking performance are:

-Braking surface on the rim; is it clean? Overly worn? Damaged?
-Brake pads; properly adjusted? Worn? Oily/dirty? Compound? Cartridge?
-Brake calipers; are they overly tight/is there friction in the mechanism? Are they flexing?
-Brake cables; are the inners clean/greased? Kinks/tight bends?
-Brake levers; are they sticking? Flexing?

This is just a brief overview and I'm not an expert, but as you can see there are lots of factors that affect braking performance. I would suggest a thorough clean to remove oil/brake dust. I have 105 brakes on my bike and they're very good, lots of power with good modulation (feel).

To answer your question, I have no experience with Tiagra brakes but would advise buying the 105 calipers if they're the same money as the pads, they sound like great value. The 105 calipers have good quality pads installed, and no matter how great the Swisstop pads are, good pads don't fix bad brakes IME. Might be worth cleaning and getting your local mechanic to check over the brakes before you take the plunge though.

styxd

As above.

Shimano calipers are good, even the lower range ones.

BBB techstop pads are good cartridge pads. Usually less than £20 for a full set on ebay. If you still feel performance isnt any good, then get the Swissstop greens, planet x are usually less than £20.

Monty Dog

adambutterwick wrote:

To answer your question, I have no experience with Tiagra brakes but would advise buying the 105 calipers if they're the same money as the pads, they sound like great value. The 105 calipers have good quality pads installed, and no matter how great the Swisstop pads are, good pads don't fix bad brakes IME. Might be worth cleaning and getting your local mechanic to check over the brakes before you take the plunge though.

There's virtually no difference between Tiagra and 105 components apart from the finish (silver or black) and the cartridge brake shoes, so effectively the only differentiator is the pads and believe me decent pads make a huge difference. Buy a set of 4 cheap pads and holders for a tenner (e.g. Bikefridge on ebay) and some decent pads and you'll get better than 105 performance for £20 less.