Athens80

I see ridges, pits and a few specks of embedded materials in the brake shoes. I've dug out some of the specks, which are smaller than grains of sand. Should I sand the shoe surface, do anything else to them, or are they fine as is? If they should be sanded, what abrasive is good? They seem to have plenty of depth/wear left. Braking performance seems okay.

Information:
Cannondale C2 branded brakes
3000+ miles riding, mostly dry weather urban/suburban
Shimano WHR550 wheels

LesterOfPuppets

I sand my brakes when they get glazed like that. Pick out hunks o' aluminum, rock, glass, etc. with the point of a compass.

100-200 grit sandpaper.

operator

Good pads don't do that. Replace them.

Bikewer

Ahh..There's life in those yet...You can still see the grooves, and the wear is nice and even across the pad.
True...Not MUCH more life. I sand them with a block (just a piece of flat wood) to keep things nice and flat. You might want to check your rims as well.

operator

It's not the amount of pad left it's the whole pad. Good pads don't **** up rims and get debris on them like that. Those look like some sort of stock tektro pad.

davidad

When you do replace them, get shimano DA pads. In "Bicycle Science" they tested puy best in wet or dry conditions.

desertdork

My first and only experience with stock pads on Tektro calipers looked just like that after having been ridden briefly (<200mi) on reasonably clean, dry roads. As I picked out the embedded debris, I could see it was a lose-lose situation; the pad compound would be a problem until they eventually disintegrated from use and constant maintenance, not to mention the concerns about rim wear. For $14, I replaced them with Koolstops and never had once speck of debris in the pads again. Sanding is good for removal of glazing, but it doesn't appear glazing is the real issue here.

vredstein

If sanded, they do have life left in them, but it costs very little to replace them with quality Kool Stop pads.
There's a good chance that even after sanding, the pads would just continue to pick up more debris, which will cause unecessary wear on your rim's braking surface.
Higher quality replacement pads like Koolstops have fins and are shaped to to move debris away from the braking surface instead of trapping it.

LesterOfPuppets

IME, even Kool Stops will do that if you do enough riding in the rain on dirty roads. Every time you brake with some dirt in between brake and rim, it happens.

But I wholeheartedly agree with replacing current pads with Kool Stops. Awesome brake blocks, those.

vredstein

If sanded, they do have life left in them, but it costs very little to replace them with quality Kool Stop pads.
There's a good chance that even after sanding, the pads would just continue to pick up more debris, which will cause unecessary wear on your rim's braking surface.
Higher quality replacement pads like Koolstops have fins and are shaped to to move debris away from the braking surface instead of trapping it.
If you're willing to invest more money, I'd recommend the full Koolstop pad and holder. The holder has a ball joint which swivels, allowing you to easily set them up in perfect alignment with the rim, while the pad itself has a pre-shaped toe in.

operator

The koolstop 'dura' compatible pads pictured aboves only downside is the dumbass "plow" tip that supposedly "cleans your rims". It is not specifically designed for toe-in. All that stupid tip does is make the brakes feel incredibly mushy - the only acceptable way to install these pads is if you file or grind off this ******** tip before installation.

That plow tip is 100% waste of time. Note how the campy compatible refill pads do not feature this - campy said hell no you're not putting that **** on our pads. End of story.

Athens80

I'll replace the pads. Thanks!

vredstein

My mileage varied.

Bikewrench217

The pads on my Trek did the same thing. I used a file to clean the pads. Just droped my wheels. About 5 to 10 minutes worth of work