Anyone ridden with cork brake pads ? I'm trying to get my hands on some..

are you using carbon rims?

i got a follow up question.

carbon rims with aluminum braking surfaces (zipps, to be specific). normal pads or cork?

normal
I wonder if he couldn't resist the prominent lew racing ad thats been up for the past few weeks.

i just want some cork pads to try out..is it that big of a deal ? and I couldn't find much of them. Thanks.

They're not going to work as well, they are only used on carbon rims b/c they dissipate heat faster.

Any high end shop should have them in stock. Why do you want to try them?

no, they dissipate heat much worse, they just dont eat carbon braking surfaces like a normal pad.
ZIPP makes a rubber pad for carbon rims, it's a little better, but let's face it, carbon resin is a pretty **itty braking surface to begin with. It can only get so good.

I've never heard of anyone trying this but since they're developed for coated carbon surfaces, I'd image they would absorb aluminum slivers from a standard machined braking surface and thus last a far shorter period of time. In general, it sounds like an idea someone on this board would have and a solution for a problem that certainly doesn't exist. Just get some salmon kool stop pads and live your life.

Yeah, right. From Wikipedia on F1 brakes:
Brakes
Brake discs on the Williams FW27.

Disc brakes consist of a rotor and caliper at each wheel. Expensive carbon-carbon (the same material used on the Space Shuttle) composite rotors - introduced by the Brabham team in 1976 - are used instead of steel or cast iron because of their superior frictional, thermal, and anti-warping properties, as well as significant weight savings.

You might want to search for airplane brakes as well.

Yes, ive held a F1 brake rotor in my hand that was carbon fiber. Amazing ****.

The other side of that is that carbon carbon brakes don't work worth a damn when they're cold. You would never see brake temps on a bicycle high enough for carbon brakes to work even half as well as a traditional rim brake.

lol..you think regular bike brakes get hot while youre riding around not using them?

i use them on aluminium rims purely because that's what came with the bike and i haven't worn them out yet.

if i squeeze hard enough i can still lift the rear [and endo into the back of a car if i squeeze too hard].

i guess that means they work.

quite frankly, braking is a can of worms. [even without the brake/brakless arguements].

fsnl
sparky

You need to research bike brakes a little more... lol

The carbon braking surface on F1 brakes and the surface on carbon bike wheels is totally different.
I have carbon wheels on my road bike and I've used cork pads and zipp pads (made by koolstop)

Stick with normal pads on alum rims, cork really sucks on it and zipps only kinda suck on it.

braking on carbon rims is ****tier all the time.. no matter what. it just doesnt have the same feel.

I am grateful to subsistbmx for bringing up this thread. I wasn't aware such brakepads existed. I will now switch all my bikes to such pads (I hope to find them for cantis as well). That's because I am big on environment friendliness. With the Nokian "Deserve Them" environ friendly tires, I am improving my environ footprint.

It would be nice if chains and sprockets were made of some environment-friendly steel alloy. To be honest, simple carbon steel would be the most acceptable. I wonder if any bike-part company focuses on such issues.



I know, I know, by all western standards, I am crazy.

I do not think so.
I was referring to this general statement:
"carbon resin is a pretty **itty braking surface to begin with"

completely bat**** actually and not just by "western standards" whatever the **** that means. There is no reason to think that cork brakes are any more enviormentally friendly then all rubber ones on any level. This of course completely ignores the waste arising from cork pads(or high carbon steel parts) that have to be replaced more frequently.


I'm still curious as to why subsistbmx@hotmail.com "just wanted to try out cork pads". Please enlighten us.

Lighten up maaaaaaan, the cork trees just want to be a part of the hot fixed gurr action.

Yea, wikipedia is cool and all, but I paid through school by welding chassis in a race shop, in NASCAR country (yeehaw), and it's evident your understanding of carbon braking surfaces is, well, obviously internet based.

Long explanation short, carbon F1 rotors aren't the same as a zipp surface- not even close. The fibers in auto rotors are woven and bound with ceramics, not plastic resins like bike rims. Plus, in the larger racing picture, F1 cars favor huge weight savings over huge stopping power. They're high zoot, but not particularly "good".

In the bike realm, I'll let others chime in, again, with their experience, but I really doubt anyone riding 404s is going to rave about stopping power with cork pads. Again, it's about application. Road racing brakes only need to stop so well.

AfterThisNap you sound like a cool dude. Entire time I was reading this thread I was about to type both of your responses before I read them. Mind if I ask you what you do now?

last i heard cork trees were becoming endangered from over harvesting. hell, harvesting rubber doesn't even kill the tree...

cant you just be happy with all the gas you arent using?

In one of the TDF histories I read it mentioned that riders would often switch to cork pads for the mountain stages because the compounds being used for the normal pads tended to catch fire on the descents.

Yeah, I was confusing what I had read. I was reading why one carbon specific brake pad was better than another b/c it transferred heat better.

Nope. Nor did I imply that.

When carbon brakes reach their proper operating temperature they have a higher coefficient of friction than any metal rotor does. Saving rotational weight is just a bonus.