Advice on brakes

[Nomadski]

I went out on a damp road for the first time a few days ago, and heading down Broomfield Hill in Richmond Park I had my first wobbly moment at 28 mph. Prior to maneuvering a bend I wanted to apply a bit of brake before the corner and felt very little happening.

After the bend I applied a little more and got to slow down but I must say I wasn't entirely enthralled by their performance.

Haven't had particularly bad experience with them before, but being more conscious of them the rest of the ride put me a little on edge.

They are Tektro R539 brakes with whatever standard pads they come with on my Cannondale.

Are these supposed to be ok brakes? What would you suggest I do, replace them or the pads or both?

 

[okeydokey79]

i think if you do a search on here for brakepads u will find koolstop salmon and swissstop pads always appear in the threads, i have the salmon on mine and have improved the braking lots.

 

[Kai]

Ive just replaced the pads on my Tektro's with Coolstop Salmons and they have made a big difference . The originals seemed very "hard" to me .

 

[MattHB]

Koolstops are great. But make sure you regularly wipe down rims at this time of year to get rid of any contamination and grit.

 

[Nomadski]

Looks like I will be ordering some Koolstops then.

Thanks all.

 

[Nomadski]

I got the Koolstops and put the pads in place of the preinstalled ones.

Couple of questions..

The rear set were easy to replace, I just loosened the screw highlighted and they slid straight out as per the arrow...

The front set however I had to also remove the retaining bolt holding the actual brake bracket thing (that holds the pads) as by default the pads wouldn't slide out because of the front forks. Is the highlighted small screw not meant to be at the front so I can just slide the pads out, like with the rear one? Seems a bit odd...

Secondly, after fitting Ive found the brake handles have way more give than I believe is safe -

Ive adjusted the thing above the brake (circled below) to its max level and its made no difference. How do I add more tension (if that's what I need to do) for the brake lever to only go halfway to the hood?

Sorry for all the pics, thought it would better help as my terminology is none existent!

 

[Rob3rt]

The front set however I had to also remove the retaining bolt holding the actual brake bracket thing (that holds the pads) as by default the pads wouldn't slide out because of the front forks. Is the highlighted small screw not meant to be at the front so I can just slide the pads out, like with the rear one? Seems a bit odd...

Secondly, after fitting Ive found the brake handles have way more give than I believe is safe -


Ive adjusted the thing above the brake (circled below) to its max level and its made no difference. How do I add more tension (if that's what I need to do) for the brake lever to only go halfway to the hood?

The front brake is as it should be, note the brake blocks come out in the opposing way to the wheel rotation, this is a safety mechanism so the brake block can not slide out under braking if you lose the screw for some reason (when braking the wheel rotation actually pushes the block into the shoe). You do not need to take the front brake shoe off to get them out, just take the wheel off and squeeze the calliper and they will slide out without hitting the forks.

For the latter question, release all cable tension from the barrel adjuster, then loosen the cable retaining bolt, set the calliper in place, squeezing it close to the rim but not hard on, pull the cable and re-torque the retaining bolt. The brake should have enough loose cable to spring open off of the rim a bit. Now fine tune the lever feel with the barrel adjuster.

 

[biggs682]

koolstops work well and are a worthwhile improvement

 

[youngoldbloke]

Ive adjusted the thing above the brake (circled below) to its max level and its made no difference. How do I add more tension (if that's what I need to do) for the brake lever to only go halfway to the hood?

Sorry for all the pics, thought it would better help as my terminology is none existent!

If that is after adjustment you have turned it the wrong way. Look carefully at the brake blocks as you turn the adjuster. I think you will find turning it anti-clockwise will move the shoes closer to the rim. Otherwise as Rob3rt above.

 

[Nomadski]

@ Rob3rt & younggoldbloke - Thanks for the tips, worked a treat. Had a bit of a tricky time getting the pads to not only be straight on the rim, but also to not be an an angle (so the front or the rear would touch the rim first) but I think I finally got it.

Learning my bike, 1 screw at a time lol.