Brake pads and shoes

pedalbasher
pedalbasher Posts: 215
edited February 2014 in Road buying advice
I have bought some new carbon wheels for my Canyon.

Old wheels = Ksyrium Elites, alu rim, running 23mm tyres.

New wheels = Reynolds Assaults, carbon rim, running 25mm tyres.

I want to make switching wheels as simple as possible. I guess the easiest thing to do is to buy a new set of brake shoes for the new Reynold-specific carbon pads to sit in, and then just replace the shoes/pads together whenever I want to switch wheels. Does that sound right? Obviously some minor adjustment will also be needed to the calipers when switching as the rim width is different for each set of wheels, but that doesn't take long.

I have the dark gun-metal Ultegra 6700 at the moment, and they look good, so the same or similar would be ideal assuming they will hold the Reynolds pads.

I think this is what I need - one set for the alu pads, one for the carbons. Would that work?

http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/sp/road-t ... 5000000000

V grateful for advice.

Comments

  • ironhorse
    ironhorse Posts: 22
    That would work, but would be a pain as you'd have to fully undo and re-align the brake shoes every single time you swapped wheels.

    Much easier would be to just keep one set of shoes always attached to the caliper and just swap out the pads. Cartridge pads, as present on your calipers, can just be slid in and out of the shoe by undoing the small 2mm allen bolt.

    You could pop out one set of pads then pop the others in and do a bit of re-alignment in the time it would take you to undo one brake shoe.

    Does that make sense?
    Aran
  • pedalbasher
    pedalbasher Posts: 215
    Cheers, that makes sense. Tbh I was put off because I tried to slide the old pads out last night and found that the 2mm allen bolt was rounded out and therefore can't be undone. Perhaps I over-tightened it last time, I don't know. Either way, there's no way of sliding the pads out (on the front brakes at least) so I'll order another set of shoes anyway.

    Hopefully if the allen bolts remain ok then I can just switch pads as described in the future.
  • ironhorse
    ironhorse Posts: 22
    The bolts have a stop on them and need tightening only gently to the point you can feel it 'lock'. I have done up hundreds and never had one round out.

    Obviously, never use a ball ended allen key for this...
    Aran
  • crankycrank
    crankycrank Posts: 1,830
    pedalbasher wrote:
    Tbh I was put off because I tried to slide the old pads out last night and found that the 2mm allen bolt was rounded out and therefore can't be undone.
    Use a small torx bit to get the bolt out. The set screw actually isn't necessary unless you brake while rolling backwards. If you plan on switching pads often you could just leave them out or as mentioned, just do the screw up till snug but not extra tight to ease removal. It also helps to have a fresh allen wrench as these wear out rapidly in this size but can be freshened up by just grinding down the worn end until it gets too short to use.
  • ironhorse
    ironhorse Posts: 22
    ^yah
    Aran
  • rayjay
    rayjay Posts: 1,384
    http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/sp/road-t ... 0000000000

    These pads work with both, no need to change
  • mitchgixer6
    mitchgixer6 Posts: 729
    Whatever you do don't use the same pads on both wheels. When using the brakes on alloy rims tiny shards of metal get picked up by the pads. If you were then to use the same pad on a carbon rim it wouldn't take long for the metal shards to eat into the carbon.

    It's not much more faf to swap just the pads rather than the shoes, but if the bolt has been chewed then you'll just need to buy new shoes.
  • fleshtuxedo
    fleshtuxedo Posts: 1,857
    Buy a complete spare set of second hand calipers for the pads you use least, will barely cost more and save loads of time. Changing pads is a cr*p job.
  • ironhorse
    ironhorse Posts: 22
    Guessing that is a joke?
    Aran

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