new brakes or new pads?

Swordfishtrombone

I have a commuting bike with shimano claris levers and tektro r317 brakes.

Braking is woeful in the wet. I changed the stock pads to ultegra cartridges and it's a little better but still shocking compared to my nicer bike (105 5800 levers and brakes) which has great braking even in the wet.

Is it the tektro brakes which are rubbish? (in which case i'd consider a change to 105) or are the ultegra pads just not very good? (in which case; what do I change them for?)

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Vino'sGhost

hmmmm there's nothing wrong with Shimano pads. Id be tempted to set the brakes up again from scratch having cleaned any mess off the pads and cleaned the rims properly.

Would oonly take 5 mins and poss save a load of Dosh.

paulbnix

The Tektro R317 are long drop brakes.

I had a Boardman Road Comp with Tektro long drop brakes and it needed them because I could fit mudguards.
I'm not sure if they were the R317.

At the same time I had a Planet X with SRAM Apex normal drop brakes.

I swapped pads (Swisstop) and wheels between the two bikes and there was a noticeable difference in braking power. The Tektro were much weaker.

I wasn't sure if the lack of power was caused by the fact that the brakes were long drop or the fact that they were Tektro :-)

Eventually I bought a set of Shimano R650 57mm Brakes which are equivalent to Ultegra.

It transformed the braking.

So if you don't need long drop then 105s would do - if you do need long drop then a pair of current long drop Shimano brakes would be good.

Swordfishtrombone

Thanks for the replies. Seems like the pads are fine but the tektro brakes not great, which is what I thought. I'll try some 105 brakes.

craigus89

Winter bike had Tektro brakes, changed them to 105's front and back and noticed a significant improvement. Definitely worth doing.

stueys

You'll definitely notice an improvement by changing brakes, the ones you have aren't great. Having said that I think there is a significant difference between premium pads like a swissstop and the standard Shimano ones. So I'd be tempted to try pads first as a cheaper option, you might find it gives you what you need.

keef66

Swordfishtrombone wrote:

Thanks for the replies. Seems like the pads are fine but the tektro brakes not great, which is what I thought. I'll try some 105 brakes.

I've always found the stock Shimano brake blocks / inserts pretty effective. The same inserts are fitted as OEM in 105, Ultegra and Dura Ace calipers so they are hardly going to be rubbish.

But you first need to be sure the bike will allow you to use a standard caliper. As already mentioned your Tektros are a long drop model. They allow the brake blocks to be 47-59mm from the mounting bolt in the fork crown.

With R-7000 calipers it's 51mm and the older 5800 calipers it's a max of 49mm.

So unless your current brakes have the blocks near the top of the slots you may struggle with standard calipers to get the blocks hitting the brake track without also rubbing the tyre.

Having said all that, if you can fit 105 calipers I'm sure it will improve things a lot. I went from Tiagra to 5800 on my best bike and the improvement was startling.

Swordfishtrombone

Having just measured, it turns out the 5800 have too short a drop. Thanks for saving me learning that the hard way!

Does anybody have any long drop brake recommendations?

paulbnix

These are the ones I bought and they were much better - I think they are Ultegra equivalent
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/shimano-r650-du ... 7993380010

There is a cheaper option. I'm not sure if there are any differences other than the brake blocks.
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/shimano-br-r451 ... 8000413022

keef66

I’ve got the R450s on my winter bike but I’ve replaced the all-in-one moulded blocks with 5800 holders & inserts

Swordfishtrombone

As a follow-up for anyone with similar problems:
I changed the brakes to shimano r451 and swapped out the pads for the ultegra cartridges I had. Slight improvement but still not great.
I've now changed from the ultegra pads to some koolstop salmon ones and the difference is night and day. Bit disappointed in the ultegra (6800) ones, was quite suprised at just how much better the koolstops were.

keef66

Thanks for taking the time to update the thread. It's always good to her what worked and what didn't. Out of curiosity, what rims?

And now I'm wondering if I could be missing out on even better braking by not trying the KoolStops...

Swordfishtrombone

The rims are alexrims r500. They are just the cheap and cheerful ones that came with the bike.
I would give the Koolstops a go if you find yourself riding in the wet regularly. Was torn between them and also swissstop pads which also get good feedback for the wet.