AStomper

I'm not sure if this should go into the mechanics one. I rode in a storm recently (and made the best time ever), and hit the brakes. I got nothing, no signs of friction whatsoever. I tightened the brakes up till they were rubbing the whole time that I was riding and they worked a little. The pads are practically new, but they are old, possibly 10+ years. Any recomendations on what to do?

Autokat

Get a bike with disc brakes .

supcom

Get some new pads. 10+ year old pads are not new. Rubber hardens over time.

And make sure you have aluminum rims.

nasiralpharia

Yeah get new pads, you can even look for the kool stop brand of pads. Learn how to use your front brake effectively, and when its raining you need to tap the brakes every few minutes to get them to dry even if your not trying to stop.
I own 3 bikes and if i know its supposed to rain then I don't ride my road bike with steel rims and caliper brakes, i ride one of the other two which both have fenders and V-brakes which are stronger. If I carried huge loads and was mountain biking I would get disk brakes but now I'm too cheap.

pityr

koolstop salmon color pads are what you need if you don't want to spring for the full disc setup.

seeker333

Yep this is exactly what you need.

Even a front disc only will get you stopped in the rain.

Platy

I assume your brakes were working before the storm. What happens in my area is that some combination of ultra fine clay particles and road grime sticks to my rims and sort of glazes them when it dries out. A little fine grit sandpaper or steel wool on the rims usually solves that problem for me. You'll like the new brake pads if you get them, though.

If the brakes just don't grab when they're wet and work fine again when they dry out, I don't know.

Cyclist0383

Kool Stop Salmon pads. They work great in the rain.

bmclaughlin807

Steel rims suck in the rain. Aluminum alloy rims are MUCH better... if you're running steel rims you should be able to find replacement wheels pretty cheap. If your pads are 10 yrs old, new pads are pretty much a must.

Salmon cool stop pads help a lot as well.

Disk brakes are the best, but probably overkill for what you need.

bhtooefr

I haven't tried the new pads on my front brakes in the wet, but the old ones (suspected 22 years old, based on the tires, and some other stuff on the bike,) if I would touch the brakes when it was wet, I'd get black goo all over my rims, and almost no stopping. Dry, it was fine.

bike2math

+1 on the Salmon pads. I think mine actually work better when wet. Night and day difference between those and the stock pads that came with the bike.

gosmsgo

If you have a walmart bike the brakes will never work.

The rims are cheap steal with chrome sprayed over them and there just isnt any fricton there.

+1 on the rim brakes. I can pull a bikes at work trailer with 300#'s of stuff in the rain and STOP as easy as I please.

Well, I can stop anyway. : )

wahoonc

Good quality pads, alloy rims, disc brakes or drum brakes are your best options. I do ride a couple of old steel rimmed bikes, but not usually in the rain and if I do I allow for the fact that braking is probably not going to happen.

Aaron

2manybikes

Steel rims or aluminum rims? Brakes don't work on steel rims in the rain.

Geonz

drum brakes are nice

AStomper

Most definetly not an xmart bike. Old Raleigh, with alloy rims. I looked for disc brakes but only seen one on nashbar and performance, and it was cable. If I spring over a hundred for brakes I don't ever want to touch a cable again. I never touch my rear brakes, cept in the rain, when I use both rear and front all the way. I'm going to get the salmon ones, and if someone could get back about good disc brakes could you tell me if I'll need new wheels also?

cerewa

In my experience, kool stop salmon pads work very well on steel or aluminum-alloy rims. Even with kool stop pads, though, you have to ride the brakes every once in a while if your rims are soaked, if you want to be able to get a quick response out of the brakes when you need them.

One option would be to replace a pad on one side of your front brake and one side of your rear brake with kool stop pads-- that should give you adequate rain stopping power and also allow you to avoid the fact that if it's dry and hotter than about 100 deg. F, kool stop salmon pads get a little bit slippery.

2manybikes

You need a frame, and a fork, with disc brake mounts. Most of your old parts won't fit onto a new frame.
It's cheaper to buy a whole new bike than build one. You might need new wheels, can't tell with no information. But it's not worth the expense. You need a frame and fork anyway.

As long as you have alloy wheels the brakes can be made to stop just fine in the rain. No need for disc brakes. New brake shoes may solve the problem. You may be able to fix the old ones by sanding off the hard oxidized rubber exposed to the air and exposing new softer rubber. Just a littte sanding on the braking surface may fix it. A bike shop can fix this easily.

You can't really say without seeing the bike, but it's a small easy to fix problem as long as the wheels are alloy.

evblazer

I used some multitype pads from Kool Stop. Tectonics

https://www.westernbikeworks.com/prod...p?p=KSTEC&tn=0

"Includes one set of pads with Black (normal condition), Salmon (wet condition), and gray (transition force) compounds."
They stop my 300lb self on my 60lb when loaded touring bike well in rain and extreme heat so far pretty well. The pads that came with the bike were scary soft and hardly stopped me at all ever.

supcom

Your old Raleigh will not take a disk brake on the rear as there is nowhere to bolt on the caliper. Your fork is in the same situation. If this is bike has a 1" steer tube (almost certainly), chances are that you cannot get an off-the-shelf fork with disk mounts.

Even if you could mount disk calipers (maybe there's some kind of bolt-on adapters) then you will need to get new hubs that are designed to bolt on the disks.

In short, putting disks on your old Raleigh is probably uneconomical at best. Good pads are a better choice. If you have the old style single pivot sidepull brakes, then you could upgrade these with dual pivots. There are Shimano dual pivot sidepulls that have nutted mounting bolts for old frames that do not use recessed nuts. See Harris Cyclery for details.

If your brake cables are 10+ years old, you might try replacing them and the housings along with the pads.

pluc

I can only second the Kool-Stop option. I've ridden in the rain hauling 120lb cargo on my trailer and ridden through snowstorms with them and no problem.

Disk brakes are useless for most conditions.

Buglady

I had the same experience on my Raleigh (1984 5 speed) on the way home yesterday. I'm buying Koolstop brake pads for ALL my bikes today. That was No Fun. (I didn't crash, but I came a lot closer than I liked).

Roody

I agree with 2manybikes. Pads are probably not the problem (but cheap and easy, so you might as well replace them).

You have steel rims. These are no longer used because they won't stop when wet. The only solution us to get new wheels with aluminum rims. Disc brakes are totally out of the question with this bike.

Koostops are nice but there are other brands that work well too. But again, the problem here is probably not the pads but the rims.

AStomper

I sanded the pads down by rubbing them on the concrete. I can't believe how much softer the inside rubber is, I prolly wouldn't have ever wore down to it riding. I'm going to wait for a good storm before I make a final decision on weather I'm going to buy new pads or not. I'd like some of the multi ones though, thats for sure.

Cyclist0383

Why in the world would you risk your safety, and the safety of others, for the cost of a few brake pads? There is a time to be thrifty, and this isn't it. You're being cheap and putting others at risk by doing so.