Beats_MC

I've tried almost everything I can think of.
I've brought the shoes right in till they are practically touching the rim, lubed up everything, all the springs etc.
But my bike still has a massive stopping distance, I'm thinking I should try new shoes.

How big a difference is a good pair of brake shoes as opposed to a bad pair?
I've felt my shoes with my fingers and they feel awfully smooth and 'dry'.

Thanks in advance.

Wordbiker

Buy some Kool Stop Salmons.

I'm not much for rim brakes, but after seeing them recommended so highly on this forum, I tried some and they do make a remarkable difference.

z415

New good pads are a night and day difference. Go for it.

jgedwa

What kind of bike? What style of brake? Are the rims chromed steel or aluminum?

jim

calyth

Even with the Kool Stop Salmon's "toe" for "cleaning off the rim", which requires you to set the shoes a bit further away from the rim than I like, they break a lot better than the Shimano DuraAce pads that I had on the bike (they were there when I got it second hand).

Go try it. It makes a difference.

DannoXYZ 

DON'T set the pads close to the rims. Your hands have the most strength and control when they're closed. You should set the levers so they lock up the tyres just before the levers touch the bars.

And you are using the front-brakes righit?

xenologer

DO set the pads as close as possible to the rims, for quick responce time and maximum gripping power.
If your hands are too small to get a good grip on the levers, then you can adjust those via the screw on the levers themselves and the barrel adjuster.




Are you using the correct type of brake lever for your type of brakes?
Some have different amounts of travel vs force.

AEO

there's no adjuster to set reach on road style aero levers. you have to use a shim or get levers specifically designed with shorter reach in mind.

there's long pull, which is for V-brakes and then there's short pull, which is for road calipers, cantilevers, etc. and they shouldn't be mixed.

don't forget to toe-in the pads and wipe down the rim with some alcohol.

Abacus

What kind of brakes do you have, caliper, vee or cantilever?

Wordbiker

He means use alcohol to wipe the rims down, not use alcohol while wiping the rims down.

AEO

you could try both at the same time

z415

I'm with Danno with the front pads and xeno for the back pads. For me, that means more modulation up front since I primarily use my front brakes.

Rear brakes are for shedding speed in turns or just to augment to fronts so they don't get much use. Well, I also use them when I am out of saddle and some ped cuts in front of me and the front would lead to an endo, with the added bonus that the rear skidding will make said ped hop out of the way.

rumrunn6

Make sure the shoes make full contact with the rim. Forget toe-in unless you hear squealing.

cbchess

new pads +1

Psydotek

Alternatively, if you can brake hard enough to lock up the wheels or risk doing an endo' then you'll need tires with more grip.

HillRider 

Until the OP answers this question, none of our suggestions mean anything. If the answer is "steel" we can stop suggesting brake refinements right now.

davidad

If not steel rims get the shimano Durace pads. Bicycle Science has tests that show them the most effective in the wet as well as dry.

thomson

Agreed as well as some of the other questions. What type, make, model, etc.

Different pads are not the answer to all braking problems.

jdott

New pads and don't under estimate the value of some good calipers. My road bike came with some rebranded Cane Creeks. I just thought crappy stopping was part of the roadie experience. I got a good deal on some Ultegra calipers and now I can stop just as quickly as I could on the commuter.

xenologer

You shouldn't use the rear to 'augment' the front brakes. If you're already braking hard on the front one your weight is shifted forward so activating the rear brake is possible to cause the rear wheel to lock and slip out from under you.

DannoXYZ 

No answer back from the OP. I think he endo'd and is in hospital...

DieselDan

The OP said he lubed everything. I hope he didn't put lube the rim!

Without more information, like the type of brake, none of us can help too much more. There is also the brake phenomena when going to a road bike from an MTB, which riders complain of poor brakes, but don't understand that a road bike is faster and has less rolling resistance.

Stopping a road bike with 23mm wide tires at 25mph will take longer then an MTB with 2" wide tires at 12mph.

noglider 

I disagree. I don't believe different tires offer different braking abilities.

HillRider 

That's right. Unless the tires are very slick, the limit to a bicycle's stopping power is the point that the rear wheel is totally unloaded. That happens on a typical road bike at just about 0.5G and any decent tire will maintain traction to well beyond that point.

wirehead

I started with cheap nasty-ass V-brakes, first changed the pads, then changed the brakes themselves with good V-brakes.

Both made a difference, but the pads alone were good enough to create the risk of endoing that wasn't there before.