BRAKE TIPS PLEASE....
Hey there ppl. I just started riding again, and wondered if you folks got many tips for better braking on alloy rims, I used to ride chrome rims so never had this prob before.
Any tips would be great thanx.

PS: I know the coke trick lol.

PPS: Is it me, or have the size of handlebars got lower than they used to be???? Mine are apparently 7" high, is that normal????

get chrome rims.

7" handlebars are a bit small, i think mine are like 7 1/4" which is still small for me. most people who i know run about 8" handlebars. my biggest concern when i buy handlebars is to make sure that i like the sweep-back, and that they're not too wide at the curves.

I sure could use some tips on this also. I just got my bike together and with alloy rims it don't seem to stop as well as I would like. The brake pads I have are slick pad unlike what I've used in the past. BTW what is the coke trick?

Chad

By the "coke trick" Im reffering to putting a thin layer of cola onto the rims with a cloth so it causes a sticky layer. But it gets gunky. I did just find some new brake pads actually which are very soft for wet weather and they work alot better.

Take some wet/dry medium grit sandpaper and rough up the rim surface. Also do the same to the pads or switch to a softer compound like Kool Stops.

Just a thought to the wet/dry sandpaper.........how hard and how much of the surface to i have to rough up? I have black rims, so do I do it until the black come off???

Careful with roughing your rims up though, it wears your pads so much quicker.

No you just get the gloss finish to dull up.

It still wears your pads quicker.

do what some trials riders do: rough up the rims in a radial pattern all the way around, then put some tar on them. you'll need a very special kind of tar though...

there some stuff about tar and rim grinding on this page toward the bottom. i still say get chrome rims and 990s though...

Just how much braking power should I excpect from "U" brakes and alloy rims?

Chad

Yeah we got it. It wears quicker than what your solution? Which was.......... Brake pads are not expensive. He wants better braking that is all.

it probably won't lock up the rear wheel unless it's off the ground, or unless you pull REALLY hard and your brakes are really well adjusted.

Really? Where do you get that from? Most all of the U Brakes I set up can lock up rear wheels easily.

personal experience...if the rims are silver, the brakes won't grab as fast. they'll lock up, but not fast enough to pull like an abubaca or a fufanu for most people. silver rims are good if you need to feather the brakes during a manual or something like that...chrome rims will lock up faster than silvers, unless it's raining. i assume that when "chad smith" says "alloy," he means silver and not chrome....of course most rims nowadays are made out of some type of aluminum alloy, so maybe he means chrome...i don't know. he didn't say.

i wasn't saying anything bad about U-brakes. i love them, except they're hard to adjust.

Brake technology is not where it should be. Chrome rims give you the best chance for success in stopping. I run some pro-max canti mounts that I back almost all the way out when I race and if I need to throw out the hooks THAT bad I have bigger problems. I'd rather have very little braking power than any drag from the damn pad not springing back into position.

When I say alloy I mean not steel or chrome rims, which is what I grew up with.

With my very little braking ability I took the bike to the shop and we looked at and they seem to agree with me that there is too much friction in the cable. I got a sleeved brake cable and will try that tonight.

Chad

The sleeved brake cable worked. I now have a good set of working brakes.

Chad