rhm

I'm just curious about this.

Who here uses leather brake pads? Why? On what kind of rims? How much do you use them? In what conditions? How do they hold up? Where do/did you get them? Other comments?

jbchybridrider 

I've never heard of leather brake pads but the first thing that came to mind when reading your post was wooden rims ? Or is that silly.

rhm

No, not silly. I have definitely heard of people using leather pads on wooden rims. I'm not sure why, though. More to the point, I wonder how much riding anyone is doing on wooden rims?

Roll-Monroe-Co

Various people say they're good for steel rims.

https://rceblog.wordpress.com/2010/11...nd-brake-pads/

Yellow Jersey:

bikamper

I use 'em on my steel rimmed Superbe and use 'em year round. My overall impression is "meh". I find the dry braking 'marginally' improved. Wet weather braking has gone from "OMG, will I ever stop?", to "OMG, I might be slowing down."

Bought mine from bikesmith.

Schwinnsta

Not exactly a glowing review. It is probably better to bite the bullet and by new aluminum rims for not much more money than Yellow Jersey sells these pads for.

rhm

Bikamper, re these pads you're using, are they all leather, part rubber and part leather?

I'm going to make some all leather pads and see what they're good for. I can't imagine they'll be any good, but my curiosity won't be satisfied unless I try it.

Roll-Monroe-Co

I'll be curious to see how you do it.

zukahn1 

I have used some old felt layered cloth pads on vintage bikes because they there and worked pretty good. Never had anything old enough to have leather though, but I can't see why stacked leather wouldn't as brake pads other than maybe cost wear issues.

rootboy 

Please report back to us ...if you survive the experimentation stage.

Seriously. Be careful. Now you've got me thinking. Vegetable tanned oak leather?

wahoonc

I had a set of the Fibrax leather/rubber pads, the Kool Stop Continentals are much better on the steel rims.

Aaron

rhm

So sorry! I hope it's not toooo painful!

bikamper

The pads I have are the same Fibrax rubber/leather pads that wahoonc mentioned. They are an improvement over the old John Bull pads, but less than what I expected. That said, I didn't need to use the ditch to aid myself in stopping during last years sopping wet Lake Pepin 3 Speed Tour.

I'll be putting another 80 miles on them this weekend, I'll pay a bit more attention.

Phil_gretz

Okay. You're scaring me.

I can't imagine "experimenting" with my front caliper pads.

Neither can I imagine trying to create a "new lighter weight spoke" for my front wheel.

YIKES!

Good luck.

rootboy 

It's OK. It always smarts a bit. Been ruminating on your idea. Wondering if veg tanned end grain would work better than "with the grain", so to speak. In other words, edge grain laminated in several layers. Harder to make in that configuration perhaps, but they might wear longer that way. Stop better? Who knows? Interesting idea!

photogravity

Hey rhm, I really like the idea of leather brake pads. Might you be interested in making me a set for this bike?


Mondia Special - 1 by Sallad Rialb, on Flickr

rootboy 

^ Lovely bike Sallad! Is that a derailleur I see ?

rhm

My plan is to take a scrap from the saddle recovery process, somewhere around a 4" square; soak it in water for a few hours, then fold it in half and press it in a vise. A few hours later, when most of the water has been squeezed out, I'll open it up enough to put some polyurethane glue in the fold, then put it back into the vise and let it dry. A few days later it will have turned into a little block with the consistency of wood, and thicker than necessary for a brake block. Using wood working tools I'll carve it into the shape of a brake block and slip it into a brake shoe.

The idea is to put the folded edge in the brake shoe, so the piece of leather will stay put even if the glue fails.

I'm confident I can do what I've described. Whether this will be any use in braking, I hesitate to speculate.

photogravity

And no less than Campy stuff at that!

rhm

Oh, sure. If you can find the bike, I'll give you pads for it.

noglider 

Um, forgive me, but:

Typical Rudi procedure. And likely a very workable idea. Impressive, too. Clearly, saving labor is not at all a criterion.

Dallas, what are you DOING with that stallion?

EnzoRWD

I've used them on steel rims. they work better on wet chromed steel than rubber (which is to say they do a little more than nothing). no idea on longevity. jersey is the only place I know to get them.