My brakes are rubbish

jimmyboyb
jimmyboyb Posts: 28
edited April 2013 in Road general
I have a Giant TCR bike and the brakes are rubbish. Now I am used to a mountain bikes and they are not going to be as effective as that but I have to really yank on them to stop.

Would changing the pads and/or calipers make much of a difference over the stock ones? Or is this just how road bikes are? I have not ridden any others to compare to.

Comments

  • goonz
    goonz Posts: 3,106
    Pads slightly, not sure calipers will make an difference.

    If you are coming from disk brakes then you will definitely feel short changed. Also do you brake with your hands on the hoods? You wont get optimum braking like that, try it again whilst in the drops, you will be able to squeeze the levers much tighter.
    Scott Speedster S20 Roadie for Speed
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  • Jon_1976
    Jon_1976 Posts: 690
    New pads will offer the best cost-performance increase. Assuming you use alu rims, Swissstop greens or Kool Stop salmon or dual compound are the usually recommendations. Be sure to keep braking surfaces clean also.

    Forgot to mention, check how far the pads are away from the rims without no lever pressure. A bigger gap will require long lever travel.
  • danlikesbikes
    danlikesbikes Posts: 3,898
    Changing the calipers probably not as it has shim 105 (?) brakes on which are pretty good. The pads though might be a good option as you can get much better ones for little money.

    I tend to find that compared to my MTB with disc brakes they are like going from a car with disc brakes to a car with drum brakes. Nothing wrong with them but they just take a bit more power and getting used too.
    Pain hurts much less if its topped off with beating your mates to top of a climb.
  • declan1
    declan1 Posts: 2,470
    They won't be as good as MTB disk brakes. Get some Koolstop salmon pads and make sure you keep the rims clean, in addition to braking from the drops and you should be fine.

    Road - Dolan Preffisio
    MTB - On-One Inbred

    I have no idea what's going on here.
  • stueys
    stueys Posts: 1,332
    Agree, try swapping pads. Swissstop's on my Tiagra winter bike made a big difference.
  • Mikey1976
    Mikey1976 Posts: 165
    Mine were quite bad so I purchased some dura ace pads. Booked my bike in for a service and mentioned that the brakes felt rubbish and that pads were there to change.

    Turns out the cables had seized from the levers to the calipers, so he changed them, left the old pads in, and now they are 10 times better!!
  • jimmyboyb
    jimmyboyb Posts: 28
    Cool thanks... Ill try new pads.

    At the moment its got cheap giant standard calipers on there which I do not think are the best.
  • TakeTurns
    TakeTurns Posts: 1,075
    If you're having to yank them, then they're obviously too slack. Adjust your cable tension.

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