Hi Guys,

I have Ultegra brakes & pads; but looking for more stopping / consistent stopping power.

Between Koolstop and Swisstop, what do you guys think? Other recommendations as well.

Koolstop Salmon pads are awesome.

That's all I'll use since I started using them a few years ago. For the money, probably the best upgrade you can make to your bike.

Koolstop Salmon or Dual Compound, they work great and are a lot cheaper than the swiss stop pads.

Do these pads all work better than Shimano Ultegra pads?

In the wet, yes. When dry there isn't so much difference.

I use SwissStop Black. Kinda expensive relative to KoolStop and Shimano pads, but worth the money. A great thing about them also is that they do not chew up your aluminum brake tracks. I have never seen a speck of aluminum on my pads since I started using them.

The BF choice is normally Koolstop Salmon, not tried these myself, but have used Swissstop Green, and Shimano R55C3 (stock Ultegra pads) with Ultegra (6700) brakes & STI's, and didn't find that there was a significant performance increase with the Swisstops over the Shimano in wet or dry riding, and defiantly not enough to justify the almost 3x cost for the Swissstop pads.

This is all based on using Alu rims (Open Pros & Fulcrum Racing), no experience with carbon rims.

I find the Kool Stop Salmon to offer both better dry and wet braking over stock Shimano pads.

The only negative thing I have heard about the Salmon is that they wear more quickly, but I easily get more than a year out of a set, and they're less than $9 shipped on Ebay.

I agree. A lot of the criticism on Shimano pads are absed on old Shimano ones. The new ones do stop much better and when dry, I really can't tell the difference between them and Kool Stop. It used to be Kool Stop stopped much better but Shimano got wise and improved them.

In fairness to this person and the other that also mentioned Shimano is as good in dry conditions, I have not tried Shimano pads in a few years and as a matter of fact, was unaware they even changed the compound of their pads.

What kind of wheel are you running here? If carbon, Swisstop Yellows all the way. On normal allum trainers I run the Salmon (far superior stopping power in the wet). Generally like the feel of the Yellows better, but you sacrifice a bit of wet performance in the process. Not a big difference if youre riding in the flats, but descending a mtn pass, it's really noticeable.

Alloy Rims, not carbon. Also comparison is to brand new Ultegra brake pads.

Just went to Swisstop greens on my 105 brakes; haven't really noticed a difference. Haven't ridden in the wet since I got them, so can't comment on that part.

Have you tried scrubbing your rims with a Scrubby and Simple Green?

+1

And take a little bit of sand paper and rub the brake pads a little bit.

So where is the best place to buy Kool Stop brake pads?

eBay?

Using coolstops on my Ultegra brakes and love them...

I used to get mine from a local store(Only $7 for a set!), but now I get mine from amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Kool-Stop-Dura...words=koolstop

or

https://www.amazon.com/Kool-Stop-Brak...words=koolstop

what I usually get:

https://www.amazon.com/Kool-Stop-Bicy...words=koolstop

Comes with 4 pads and two very nice and shiny pad holders. Costs pretty much the same as getting 4 pads so why not.

the current gen Shimano pads are pretty good. between the salmons and the swiss greens, go with the greens. they bite harder.

I love Swisstop green for cross on alloy rims. Those conditions will beat anything you encounter in a road app.

I do like the greens better, but they are not worth 2x the price of the kool stops.