I've been having this problem and its been bugging me for a while. My brakes currently sucks right now compared to before.

Earlier i had my entire handlebar stolen and i had to replace my shimano tiagras and switch them for some campy xenon qs. Before i was able to easily skid my rear wheel to a stop, but after switching to campys i can't. I'm not sure is it my cable routing or the levers itself thats affecting the braking ability.

I've cleaned the brake pads and rim, and a curious thing I've discovered is by pulling the exposed brake cable under the toptube, it brakes far better than my levers, leading me to think that the campys just don't have as much leverage as the shimanos. Is that the answer and is there any other ideas to fix this? Also i have installed some cross levers too, maybe this is affecting my braking performance too? Any help is appreciated.

Hello your using Xenon whats? qs? are you still using the shimano brake calipers?

chances are the difficulty is in your cable/housing routing under the tape. the 'return' spring in the shimano levers might be a bit stronger but this should still work.

PS you skid to a stop? that is bad for your tires plus if you are skidding you are out of control!

Yes Xenon qs, with some generic promax calipers. Promax i believe are not the problem since it worked well with the shimano levers before.

Haha no i don't skid to a stop, it was just that easy to do with the shimano levers (although i do sometimes skid and mess around when riding with my fixed gear friends lol). My main problem is that i have to pull the campy levers harder than I did with the shimano levers. The routing under the cable may also be a problem, so i will check them out but they seem to be pretty good and frictionless. I can feel the brakes touch the rim, but must exert more force than the shimano to come to a stop.