Utility Cycling - Steel wheels in the rain

I've been rocking an old Schwinn Suburban that I've refurbished as a singlespeed, and the only wheel I had available to me were old steel ones. I live in Eugene, OR (RAIN); and the front wheel which has a perforated surface brakes reasonably well when wet, but the rear has next to no stopping power as soon as any moisture touches it. Does anyone have any ideas how to improve stopping power for my smooth steel wheel? I was wondering if maybe marring it with steel wool would improve the situation? Any suggestions are appreciated.

I've heard salmon Kool Stop brake pads can work well with steel rims, but I've also heard that the way to make sure of upping stopping power is to switch to alloy rims.

Not much will help with steel rims in the wet. Kool-Stops are nice, but I would guess they will only help a small amount.

My varsity has that same problem, will convert it to 700c eventually. BUt for now, My commuter has better tires, it has fenders and racks too, and better brakes, so much better for rainy days.

I suspect that they chrome layer on your wheels is probably not very thick. If you try too hard to mar it up, you may find that your wheels rust away to nothing. Of course, this could be a good thing because you would be forced to upgrade to alloy. I was thinking that you could use a coarse sanding disk in a drill to lay down parallel scratches perpendicular to the brake pad motion.

If you've got 27" wheels, you may be able to upgrade to alloy for $30 or so. Back when I built up my fixie I was able to get cheap 27" rims for $10 from Nashbar. I think they're more like $15 now. I reused my old spokes to build up the wheels and they've been running true for 2.5 years now.

I don't know. It was kind of fun yesterday trying to come to a stop at a light, with traffic rushing up and me not being able to slow down. Kind of exciting.

Plan ahead?:p

Rode on steel rims with the old style brake pads for years and years. To increase braking get alloy rims AND the Koolstop/Salmon pads. There is not much you can do to a steel rim to improve braking in the wet.

Aaron:)

I've been rocking an old Schwinn Suburban that I've refurbished as a singlespeed, and the only wheel I had available to me were old steel ones. I live in Eugene, OR (RAIN); and the front wheel which has a perforated surface brakes reasonably well when wet, but the rear has next to no stopping power as soon as any moisture touches it. Does anyone have any ideas how to improve stopping power for my smooth steel wheel? I was wondering if maybe marring it with steel wool would improve the situation? Any suggestions are appreciated.

Why don't you swap the hub for a coaster brake hub?

Why don't you swap the hub for a coaster brake hub?

If you`we got it all lying around maby, but why buy new hubs + new spokes (need much shorter spokes) instead of spending your money on alu?

Unless there is other reasons like vintage look, almost maintenance free and so on.