New brake cables

devhads

I put two new brake cables on my cross bike last week along with two Jagwire cable adjusters and new XT brake cartridges. They are on Tektro mini v-brakes.
Start of the first ride the brakes were great complete wheel locking, by the end I had virtually no stopping power. I put it down to not tightening the clamp bolt enough.
Readjusted them for a race this weekend and just over a lap in I had to stop in the pits to readjust again as I literally had no brakes. Again by the end of the race they were really weak. I can't tighten the clamp bolt anymore than I am doing.
Any ideas, the pads are still ok. Do the cables stretch or need to bed in?

sungod

cables don't stretch enough to matter, but outer, ferrules, adjusters will take time to fully seat

chances are it's the adjusters/outer taking time, you can try holding the brakes on hard and wiggling the cables around to encourage the last smidge of seating

things should settle after a few rides

make sure you set cable tension with the adjusters at/near minimum, otherwise as pad wear occurs you may run out of range

devhads

Thanks sungod. On closer inspection whilst readjusting the brakes the front pads are really quite worn. They looked ok from above but are worn unevenly and quite a lot at the bottom. Back still ok so what you said could still be an issue

So, the next question is, can the uneven wear be addressed, i.e. can you get the pads to hit the rim at more of a right angle.

Any pad recommendations, these were stock Shimano ones. Something powerful but doesn't wear out after 2.5 hours of admittedly terrible conditions riding. I don't mind paying more for a pad that's going to last or even a cheap good stopper but doesn't last as long.

sungod

swissstop... http://www.swissstop.ch/road.aspx

the 'original black' are very good, waaaay better than the standard shimano ones

have a read of the different types, then google for wherever they're cheapest