What brake pads are best for alloy rims? I have a few different sets including the old standard rubber ones but I still want more braking action. Is there a certain kind of material that works better on alloy or aluminum?
Question on brake pads
- Thread starter Wildcat
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I use Jagwire Road pros on a Trek 1500. Come to think of it all my road bikes use Jagwire as does my 2 mountain bikes. I also use their cables too.
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Kool Stop makes great pads. The "salmon" color ones stop HARD, but wear fast. Lately, I've been lovin' the dual and triple compound ones... the best of both worlds, i guess.
http://www.koolstop.com/english/rim_pads.html
http://www.koolstop.com/english/rim_pads.html
I may not be able to get those name brand pads over here. Is there a certain compound that's better than others?
If that is the case then I would use the newest rubber/compound brakes I could find. For my exgf I would used the freshest brakes pads I could find. I knew that she was not a going too fast on the bike. I used the Jagwires because most of the bike racers in my area use them and they were always bragging about them. If your having braking issues on your bike there is two things you can do 1) is lightly sand your brake pads 2) re adjust your brakes so that the sit closer to the rims. But looking at the photo of your brakes they seem to be well adjusted. Are your rims true? Did you polish the rims? If you polish them did you polish the whole rim? One question the front fork shows side pull brakes? Yet I see that the fork has braze ons for other types of brakes did you replace those for the side pulls? Sorry for so many questions.
SwissStop offers pads that are similar to KoolStop.
In my experience, the salmon-color compound is really effective for braking. As for what's better for aluminum versus steel versus ceramic versus carbon, aluminum is the best material for braking surfaces, hands down. Steel, as we all know, is TERRIBLE. Ceramic and carbon both require special compounds. Ceramic, you wanna run the green compound that's labeled for ceramic, and you don't want to run any other compound. In return, you get excellent performance in all conditions, with wet-condition braking being better as compared to aluminum rims. (Ceramic-coated rims arguably provide better braking performance than aluminum overall, but the finickiness of the pads used and the fact that ceramic is brittle has led to their decline in popularity.) For carbon rims, you'll need to run any of several carbon-specific pads, but the braking performance kinda sucks. The advantage of the carbon rim is light weight without giving up stiffness. But, the good news is, aluminum rims are excellent in an all-around way, and you can run a wide variety of compounds. It's up to you if you want them to be cheap, or if you want them to be long-wearing, or if you want bling colors, or if you want to stop on a dime.
If all-out braking (stopping) performance is what you're after, get the salmon-colored compound. Just be prepared to change them out more frequently,and readjust your brakes more frequently, as it wears faster, too. If you're getting poor braking performance on aluminum rims, you might be running garbage pads, or you might be running garbage brakes, or you might be running nice brakes/pads but your set-up might need to be tuned better for optimal performance.
In my experience, the salmon-color compound is really effective for braking. As for what's better for aluminum versus steel versus ceramic versus carbon, aluminum is the best material for braking surfaces, hands down. Steel, as we all know, is TERRIBLE. Ceramic and carbon both require special compounds. Ceramic, you wanna run the green compound that's labeled for ceramic, and you don't want to run any other compound. In return, you get excellent performance in all conditions, with wet-condition braking being better as compared to aluminum rims. (Ceramic-coated rims arguably provide better braking performance than aluminum overall, but the finickiness of the pads used and the fact that ceramic is brittle has led to their decline in popularity.) For carbon rims, you'll need to run any of several carbon-specific pads, but the braking performance kinda sucks. The advantage of the carbon rim is light weight without giving up stiffness. But, the good news is, aluminum rims are excellent in an all-around way, and you can run a wide variety of compounds. It's up to you if you want them to be cheap, or if you want them to be long-wearing, or if you want bling colors, or if you want to stop on a dime.
If all-out braking (stopping) performance is what you're after, get the salmon-colored compound. Just be prepared to change them out more frequently,and readjust your brakes more frequently, as it wears faster, too. If you're getting poor braking performance on aluminum rims, you might be running garbage pads, or you might be running garbage brakes, or you might be running nice brakes/pads but your set-up might need to be tuned better for optimal performance.
Reviewing the OP here, if I may critique the set-up: that long-reach single-pivot sidepull caliper is gonna be weak-sauce, and getting better pads for it may improve things, but it will never blow you away. Get yourself some linear-pull brakes or at least some cantilevers, and you'll improve your braking dramatically with the change. (I see your fork has the canti/v-brake pivots brazed on.) If, for some reason, you can't run that, at least consider getting some dual-pivot sidepulls, as they provide far better feel and noticeably better performance than the single-pivot calipers.
Those are new forks, made for 24 x 1.75 wheels, the only 24" fork I could get. I'm running 24 x 1 3/8 ths rims so the V brakes won't reach. I would have gone with 1.75 and run better tires, if I had known I couldn't get the correct forks. I'll see if some new pads will be enough.
