Are brakes suppose to stop you when its raining?

[2wd]

Was out tonight whilst it was raining reasonably heavy and came to stop.... or so I thought

Bike just carried on

Good job I had my wits about me and was already cautious of the conditions and braked early

Brakes are stock that came with the Spesh Allez with plenty of life left in them and properly adjusted

Do I need to change them for something different, or is this what happens?

 

[TheDoctor]

They're a bit slower to react in the wet, but they should stop you.
What make are they? I've found Tektro to be noticeably worse than Shimano.
And Tektro pads are purest pants...

 

[rusky]

I found the pads that came with my Spesh were crap! They are pricey, but try some swissstop or Koolstop.

 

[amaferanga]

You probably just need to learn how to brake in the wet. If you just apply the brakes when you need them and keep them on then as you find out it'll take a long time to stop. If you feather the brakes before you need to stop then you'll clear most of the water from the rims so that when you apply them properly you'll stop much quicker. For an emergency stop, you'll stop quicker by applying/releasing/applying, etc. the brakes than if you just brake constantly.

 

[PpPete]

I like the Kool-Stop Dual compound in the wet. The harder black bit seems to sweep away the water and the softer "salmon" compound is as good in damp conditions as anything else out there. I can lock up the rear wheel with these in the wet and you don't need more than that. Don't seem to get as much ingrained crap as many others.

 

[Holdsworth]

I've noticed this even with Koolstop dual compound pads, the bike carries on for ages before eventually clearing the rims and grabbing again. It takes me a good few seconds before the rims are clear if they are damp and if it is actually raining they take forever to clear. You'll learn to plan ahead and brake in advance when it's wet.

 

[ushills]

Koolstop Salmon's work pretty well in the wet, you will always need to remove the surface film of water on the rims so break early.

 

[Randochap]

What ushills said.

 

[Edwards80]

For an emergency stop, you'll stop quicker by applying/releasing/applying, etc. the brakes than if you just brake constantly.

Does that apply to bicycles? The reason you do it in cars without ABS is because a sliding tyre is far less effective than a rolling one at stopping the car, the pulsing means you wont be locking the wheels up for very long if you do, so you stop quicker and can still steer the car. Not sure the same applies to bikes.

Once the rim clears of water/cack, my brakes work ok. Still best find myself planning much farther ahead in the rain though.

 

[l4dva]

I had same issue with stock pads on my boardmans... Koolstops are much better, but like mentioned you still need to be carefull

 

[jay clock]

The new standard pads on nearly all new bikes seem to be hard compound and to glaze over really fast, perhaps made worse by alloy muck building up off new rims. I would clean both rims and pads (with a scourer -non-stick variety for the rims) and sandpaper for the pads. And replace with Koolstop salmon if that doesn't work

 

[HLaB]

From my experiences koolstop are good and swisstop are slightly better for braking than my previous original ultegra pads but their wear is poor. My original rear ultegra pads got 9600 miles, the were replaced by Koolstop Salmons and they got just over 2100 miles and the replacement Swisstop only got about 900 miles. I've put cheap BBB's from the lbs in and they're pretty poor in the wet, (they'll stop me but will take longer) but they are less than a quarter of the cost, 'you pay's yer monies'.

 

[fossyant]

Clarks are good, and cheap ! Stop on a sixpence !

 

[Crackle]

Get some steel rims.

 

[potsy]

I was shocked the first time I hd to stop during a really heavy downpour
Koolstops Salmons improved the situation, but as others have said they still need a rotation or 2 to clear the water from the rims, or a regular dab of the brakes to keep 'em clear.