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V brake pads - Clarks/Kool Stop/Something else?

(10 posts)
  • Started 10 years ago by allebong
  • Latest reply from Nelly
  • This topic is resolved

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  1. allebong
    Member

    Front brake pads on the town beater are in need of replacement soon. They are a set of Clarks triple contours that have done very well for nearly a full year. Dry performance is great, wet performance not so much. I know I can't expect too much from rims but I've seen Kool Stop Salmon pads endlessly recommended for wet performance. Found them for a shade under £10 on Amazon (1 left at the time of writing as well!). Against £6 or so for another set of Clarks they seem like a good choice if the reviews are to be believed.

    So, has anyone used Kool Stops, or has any other recommendations for pads that will be seeing plenty of hard use in slop and filth?

    Posted 10 years ago #

  2. kaputnik
    Moderator

    +1 for Kool Stop salmons. Used them on the tourer with no problems, they were certainly a big improvement over the squeally, slippy Shimano nonsense

    Posted 10 years ago #

  3. EddieD
    Member

    And another for Kool Stop Salmons here, I use them on the 'bent (for the HS33 brakes) and they were all I used on my old MTB.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  4. Bhachgen
    Member

    Kool Stop Salmon very good. Nice balance between stopping power (in both dry and wet), and lifespan.

    With some googling you can find them for various obsolete/obscure braking systems too.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  5. wingpig
    Member

    Sparebike has canti-type salmon flavour and normalbike has calipers. They work in the wet and they only make horrible rim-abrading sounds when there's a lot of gritty paste underwheel, whereas black pads seem to make that noise all the time.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  6. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Aztec do a version of Salmon pads, for sale in TBW. Seem to work too.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  7. Arellcat
    Moderator

    Shimano brake pads are grippy but they are scouring pads and will destroy your rims.

    I've used regular black Kool Stops for years and years; the wet performance is tolerable but is better than Clarke. I did try the salmon Kool Stops once and noticed no improvement at all over the black ones.

    Incidentally, if you have Avid V-brake cartridge pads (SD-7, Ultimate, etc.) don't buy the Kool Stops for Avid - they're fractionally oversized and don't fit properly. Buy the Shimano-compatible ones.

    If you are used to Clarke or Ashima cartridge pads, don't buy Kool Stop which are thinner, otherwise you'll need to realign the pads on the rim.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  8. crowriver
    Member

    Squealing cantis in the dry are either poorly adjusted (try toeing in the pads) or contaminated with oil.

    Haven't needed to derivate from Clarks pads, they work just fine.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  9. allebong
    Member

    Salmons it is, thanks for the responses.

    The pads that came with the brake (Acera) were okay but not great. Good in the dry, bad in the wet, and I do think they wore the rim pretty quickly. Clarks were a major improvement all round. The worst pads I've seen recently came on a cheap mini V brake. Think hard plastic, think a grating sandpaper noise during braking even in the dry, think completely and utterly useless in the wet. Wasted no time getting those swapped out.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  10. Nelly
    Member

    I thought I had a bit of grit in my pads last week - turns out I was down to the metal in one (eeks) not good for the rim!

    Easy swap out for spare Clarks and picked up new ones at TBW last week. I know they are about 40% cheaper on t'internet but the overall cost is peanuts plus don't want LBS to go out of business.

    Posted 10 years ago #

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