How are your brakes?

[a/c man]

Consider your endless winter of downtime from riding a golden opportunity to get your brakes back up to their best possible condition. Get new cables, clean and lube every moving part to avoid binding, and above all get some decent brake shoes like I just did. I've spent the last year getting this thing to haul serious a$$, and figured I'm endangering my future with crappy brakes. Going 40 mph is an awesome feeling but you'd better be able to stop that thing when you need to. Go to Niagara Cycles (awesome bike parts website) and get the #1 rated brake shoes, KOOL- STOP SALMON. I promise you for about $8 a pair the difference is night and day. I can lock-um-up now and never could before, even when they get wet the difference is amazing from my generic bike shop pads. Not a sales pitch just the truth.Also Sheldon Brown's website and Harris Cyclery is the best "how to "
bicycle repair website out there. I got the EAGLE CLAW II SALMON pads and even on my crappy old school caliper brakes I feel a little safer about stopping
when the next idiot in a car does something stupid to me. How are your brakes anyway?

 

[motorbikemike45]

Kool stop makes decent brake pads. I use two sets on my Jaguar with rim brakes. My newer bike has discs, front and rear. I agree, when you say whoa, Old Dobbin needs to respond, right NOW!

 

[Mountainman]

it's good to hear about a better pad out there
yes at some of these speeds also good THING to really inspect that THING from time to time
I have been riding disc for a while now
it would be hard to go back

brakes are so important when we ride these motorized bicycle THINGS

 

[Hajuu]

Haha, what a dumb name, kool stop. Good advice though, my brakes right now are shoddy as ****, need some entire new sets.

 

[Esteban]

Kool Stop are very good pads !

 

[AussieSteve]

My current pads are leaving a layer of rubber/plastic on the front (alloy) rim, sort of melting.
(Only 50-70kph, (~30-45mph), not high speeds.)
Once there's a layer on the rim, the brakes get a bit dangerous, like an on/off switch.

Do you reckon that Kool Stop pads will be better in that regard, as well as stopping power? It's bloody hard to get the layer off the rim between rides, it's starting to really bug me. Anything would have to be better than this junk, but I'd like the best, or close to it.

... Steve

 

[Hajuu]

Are there no like, automotive style hard material pads available that would work with a steel or alloy rimmed wheel? Or maybe have it like the new brakes do where instead of the front of the pad touching first to stop squeeling, a secondary hard pad goes on first and takes a lot of the brunt of the breaking, before using the rubber/plastic pads for the rest and releasing the hard pads..

Could just be on the front of an ordinary pad where the nose normally touches like I said, then as you press harder, the rubber comes on.

 

[Esteban]

Try rubbing alcohol to remove build-up, oil, dirt fron the rims.

 

[AussieSteve]

First thing I tried. Works for a lot of things, but not this rubber/plastic build-up from the shoes.
All that works for me is a scouring pad, Jif cream cleanser and lots of elbow grease.
It unexpectedly picked up the rear wheel this afternoon while braking, a reminder to order better shoes ASAP.
I guess I'll try Kool Stop and see how they go.
Meantime, I've got to remove the black layer after every decent ride, to keep things safe.

... Steve

 

[professor]

The black stuff is plastic that is melting on the rim from the heat. Don't think they were designed for stopping from mach 1.
I need some better pads too.
By the way- real hard pads will not work as good and will abrade away the bike wheel over time. I try to avoid hi-metalic brake shoes in my cars because they actually wear down the rotors noticeably.