Touring - Tektro CR720 Polished Silver And New Pads

Greetings,

So, this is my one vanity post for the year ...... No they are not high end polished ..... but it beats the matte finish. .

I never liked the matte silver of the CR720, so I waited and waited for some day they'd make it in polished silver. . . . and they finally did. Not only that , they've replaced the "hand of ET" V-brake pads(72mm) for Adjustable angle cartridge road/cross sized pads(55mm), these in particular ....720.12
http://www.tektro.com/02products/pads.php

You have to make sure your vendor sells the "polish silver" ones, not just silver, as they'll be matte.

Here's a fresh photo of them, out of the box.

-cheers

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4117/4864468192_701fac976a_z.jpg

Oooooooooh.. they're purty!

clicked on the Tektro Brake Systems link.
Never knew brake pads were so pretty.
Now I need to go to the bike store and
buy more spare parts to gather dust in my bike box.

yeah..i bought these silver shiny ones a couple of months ago from treefortbikes.. it cost more than the satin ones, but i like the bling.

I've got polished Paul retros. I don't like shiny stuff, but it was all I could get. Now I like shiny brakes!

Crappola ...... I wonder if I'll be able to use these. I have a Nitto Mark's rack on a Bombadil frame, the CR720's hit the struts on the rack, so you can't open the brake to get your tire out. PITA.

i like my cr720's, but the stock brake pads wear quickly, especially when you're carrying a load. the newer road cartridge style pads rule though, i need me some kool stop salmons.

Yeah, I've ridden these now a few times ,and my rims are coated with brake dust like I've never seen from any pad in 30+ years of riding. The pads sound like they're made of paper rubbing on the rims when you apply the brakes hard.

I'm hesitant with Kool Stop Salmons though, I tried a set of smooth post ones with some other canti's on my other bikes, and they squealed like a hog. I thought it was the brake setup at first, but no, it wasn't. It didn't matter how I set them up. After trying them on 3 different sets of brakes ,2 sets of wheels, I finally realized the pads just squeal. The compound is too soft. I really wish they would work though ..... maybe it would be different on these canti's ..... I don't know.

I'll likely try some SwissStop black pads or Velo Orange's squeal free pads.

Just installed the exact same brakes last night. I already had Kool Stop pads, so I swapped the pads immediately. Haven't had a chance to ride with them yet, but I hope they work a little better than the Tektro Oryx brakes that they are replacing.

Yeah ... I just inspected my rims. They're not more than a few weeks old. The sandpaper sound is from the rims(Mavic A719) being coarse. After cleaning them, I noticed tiny bits of metal embedded on them. My previous pads were Aztecs, which I used for about a week....and sure enough there were bits of metal in them. What crap. I've use the same rims for 11 years on another bike and I never had this . The Tektro pads just added to it. Gotta get some new pads fast. I'll probably swap out the brakes with some non offending pads until I do.

Just installed the exact same brakes last night. I already had Kool Stop pads, so I swapped the pads immediately. Haven't had a chance to ride with them yet, but I hope they work a little better than the Tektro Oryx brakes that they are replacing.

The CR720 are WORLDS better than the Oryx. I love them. The pads that come with the CD720 are junk though. I burned through mine really quick, and mentioned it in passing at the shop and was told a couple other people had been complaining about the pads having a really short life. I think there is also a CR520 model which is identical but sans pads. I e-mail Surly about replacing the Oryx with CR720s and they replied saying it would add to the cost, so they weren't considering it. Such a shame.

I don't really have any squealing problems with CR720 & Kool Stop Salmon pads. Rims are Alex Adventurer.

I don't really have any squealing problems with CR720 & Kool Stop Salmon pads. Rims are Alex Adventurer.


Thanks for that. I'll give them another shot. In the meantime until I can get replacements, I switched back to my previous canti's, old school Shimano wide profile . I had tried salmon KS pads about 15 different times trying to configure them to be quiet. No matter how I set them up, they squealed. I guess #16 was the charm, because this time they did not. They work really really well. I'm impressed. I can't wait to get the salmon pads for the CR720. I live in very rugged terrain with some bad roads and need good stopping power!