Hand built wheels with Mavic Open Pros - terrible braking

bice

I made up some wheels on Ultegra some years ago, and I am pleased with them except ... the braking is dismal. Far worse than any of my other mass produced wheels, or even a Campag set on another bike.

I would say these are my summer wheels, but in fact in winter they would be hopeless.

The rims are smooth with no wear line.

I have just been putting the new wheels in and using the same old blocks.

I have some Kool Stop Salmon blocks. Are they likely to make much difference? Are these rims known for bad braking?

napoleond

Braking should be as good as any alloy out there. Kool stop salmons are good too.

fenix

Nothing wrong with open pros.

dj58

Rims and pads contaminated, have you tried cleaning them?

crankycrank

I have been running Open Pros for a couple of decades and Koolstop Salmons have been the best pads by far compared to several generations of OEM Shimano or the Swisstop Greens (Haven't tried the newest blue SS pads). I can lock up the wheels at any time. I've heard that the new Shimano DA 9000 pads are very good as well but have no personal experience with these. Anyone tried the new DA pads yet?

cycleclinic

dont blame the wheels blame your brakes/pads. all alloy rims do as well as each other with braking they have to the brake track is made of the same stuff.

Change your pads and you should be fine. If the problem persists then there is another problem. Clean everything throughly as well.

dennisn

I'm voting for some sort of operator / installer error on this one. Got to admit though that claiming bad rims is a new one on me. I think the OP needs a crash course on how to setup brakes.

Bobbinogs

Yepp, nothing wrong with the braking performance of Open Pros. For many years they were seen as the benchmark for decent rims but just need a design tweak or two to get that status back in the current market. I still ride mine regularly, thoroughly enjoyable and braking is great with Swisstop Flash Pro pads.

svetty

crankycrank wrote:

I've heard that the new Shimano DA 9000 pads are very good as well but have no personal experience with these. Anyone tried the new DA pads yet?

I'm not sure that the R55C4 is any different in compound to the R55C3s - they just have an additional U shaped cut out on the back for clearance with some holders. I may be wrong on this though........

dennisn

crankycrank wrote:

I've heard that the new Shimano DA 9000 pads are very good as well but have no personal experience with these. Anyone tried the new DA pads yet?

I would venture the question. How BAD could they be? Top of the line pads from a top of the line company used by top of the line riders in top of the line races. And you're thinking they might not work for YOU?

crankycrank

dennisn wrote:

crankycrank wrote:

I've heard that the new Shimano DA 9000 pads are very good as well but have no personal experience with these. Anyone tried the new DA pads yet?

I would venture the question. How BAD could they be? Top of the line pads from a top of the line company used by top of the line riders in top of the line races. And you're thinking they might not work for YOU?

How do you know they're using the same pads? Not a questions of if they work or how bad but is there something better. Still waiting for someone with experience to answer to the question.

napoleond

Looks like the OP has buggered off.