Braking advice

St50vec

Hi all. I've just been out on the bike for the first time and loved it apart from getting the gears all wrong on a climb. At the moment I use the brakes a lot going downhill mainly due to being bit of a pansy and unsure of bikes handling but also because we have high hedges down here and you never know where the next tractor will be. Whilst out today my brakes felt really weak would they need bedding in or maybe upgrade to new blokes as they seem fairly cheap. Bike is a 13 intrusive beta. Thanks Andy

dj58

Is this the one
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... bikesrange

https://www.trpbrakes.com/article_detail.php?aid=14
https://www.trpbrakes.com/category.php? ... 7&subcat=0

They look like direct mount type brakes, so should be powerful if they have been set up correctly. The pads do need a few rides to bed into the rims to achieve maximum stopping power, try doing a few controlled emergency stops on a quite stretch of road.

Check that the wheel rims are not contaminated with any residue, if you find anything degrease them and the brake pads. If after a few rides you still not happy with the stopping power of the brakes think about a pad change, SwissStop Blue BXP FlashPro are my choice, others have their favourites.

Giraffoto

DJ58 wrote:

SwissStop Blue BXP FlashPro are my choice, others have their favourites.

Also SwissStop green and Kool Stop salmon, both are particularly good in the wet.

pilot_pete

The key is probably in the statement 'just been out for the first time'. A number of things come to mind;

1. Are the brakes set up correctly?
2. Are you sure the rims and pads are not contaminated with anything?
3. It can take a few hard braking efforts to 'scrub in' new pads and rims and then braking improves.
4. Cables can settle in after the first few rides. They bed into all the various stops and adjusters and the inners can stretch a little. This requires a further adjustment to ensure the brakes are still set up correctly.

To me it sounds like the last item may be your issue. It depends what you mean when you say they felt 'really weak'. If you mean the lever pulls closer to the bars than it did before and you don't get as much stopping force, then thats what makes me think item 4 above could be the issue.

If you have been dragging your brakes down long twisty hills then they will heat up the rim significantly and potentially start to lose some of their bite and feel less efficient. If you have overheated the pads they may get a bit of a glaze finish on them and not work as well. If you take the wheels out and look at the brake pad surface you may be able to see this. Bit of a light scrub with some emery paper to rough them up a bit and remove the glaze may allow you to see if this was the problem. Be warned that if you do that it will take a few hard braking efforts to bed them in again, so best do it on the flat by braking from speed rather than try it on a 1:4 downhill slope!

If you have done all that and they have not improved (presumably gone back to how they initially felt which I am assuming was good?) then the cheapest option would be to try some better quality pads. These can make a world of difference to the feel, assuming the calipers are good enough quality to start with. Softer compounds can give more power but will wear quicker, harder usually don't feel as powerful but will probably last longer, but optimally you want the pad to wear quicker than the rim, so I'd go for something higher quality and expect to change them more often, but above all keep the pads and rims clean and pick out any embedded bits of alloy from the pads regularly otherwise they will start to score/ wear your rims faster.

It does depend how hard you are on your brakes as to how long you can expect them to last. Someone who rides predominantly on the flat may get year's out of a set of blocks. I've worn away high quality pads in a week riding the Pyrenees! I do like going downhill, very, very fast!

Good luck

PP

kajjal

They look like being cheap oem brakes. As above generally the pads are poor and also the calipers can flex.

On both our bikes we swapped out the cheap oem tektro brakes for some decent quality ones and it made a big difference. Changed to 105's on my bike as it had normal drop brakes and r650's on my wifes bike which has long drop brakes. The brakes immediately felt much better and the wife couldn't believe how bad the original brakes were.

St50vec

Thank you for the replies. I've been out quiet abit recently and they are feeling better even carried out emergency stop when a dog ran at me. My main issue I think is confidence going down hill I'm ok if I can see everything in advance and can prepare etc but most of the hills on my ride are walled in by 7 ft hedges and 90degree bends with lots of gravel and cow muck everywhere. I'm sure it will all come good I'm now doing the same circuit 11 mins quicker than when I started

Giraffoto

St50vec wrote:

. . . My main issue I think is confidence going down hill I'm ok if I can see everything in advance and can prepare etc but most of the hills on my ride are walled in by 7 ft hedges and 90 degree bends with lots of gravel and cow muck everywhere. . .

What you're describing there is a situation where it would be better to take it slow - confidence in your abilities is a wonderful thing that needs to be matched by your confidence that there isn't a herd of sheep in the road just round the next bend!

For the rest, it sounds as if your brakes needed bedding in then. The TRPs aren't terrible, if you swap the pads for Kool Stop or Swissstop (and bed them in, of course!) you'll find they're even better.