Hi, about 6 months I bought a '71 Motobecane 10-speed touring bike, which I love dearly and have been riding almost every day since (for commuting)... where I live, that means through terrible amounts of snow, rain and everything in between. Given that it has steel rims, the braking has never been fantastic in wet weather, and I've been trying to get new brake shoes/pads for it for a while. As of this week, I'm a bit desperate after having to basically plant both feet onto the ground while going downhill in order to avoid being hit by a car... so I would be very grateful if someone could help me figure out what sort of brake shoes I actually need: The main problem I have in finding brakes is that
1. The bike shops where I live are few and are generally full of overpriced parts for €3,000+ bikes, and many of the people working at these shops haven't seen steel rims in their entire lifetime-- let alone stock brakes designed for steel rims (I heard Kool Stop Salmons are probably my best bet, but no one stocks them here). I was even suggested that I simply replace my rims with aluminium ones-- however, I would prefer to try less-expensive options first, especially considering the age of my bike.*
3. Due to these reasons, ordering online seems the only way to go.
4. In order to order brake shoes/pads online, I have to know what style of brakes I have (e.g. Campagnolo, Dura...), and I have no idea what fits on my bike:
The brake arm is 2cm wide x 3.5cm high and the brake shoe itself is 4cm wide x 1.5 high; The rims are 1cm thick.
I would feel a bit daft going into one of these bike shops and then trusting them to tell me what type of brake shoes would fit on my bike without actually buying them. Thanks for any help you can offer!
* There is a very cool local bike self-help shop in my neighbourhood which helps bike owners once a week to fix their own bikes. The only problem is that they don't have many parts of their own, and are open only once a week: For reasons described above, I really need these brake pads ASAP...