Quoted message said:Kool Stop marketing has been poor for a long time. Many shops are
unaware of the products and there seems to be no push to change that.
On top of that, they advertised the salmon red for steel rims and had
other off the wall suggestions.
KoolStop's an interesting company. They make some great products (best brake
shoes, in my opinion), but some things they do leave you scratching your
head. Like the thicker leading edge on the pad, supposedly designed to hit
the rim first and scrape away stuff before it gets to the rest of the pad. I
always shave that part of the pad down before I install them on my own bike.
But just try to have a conversation with them about that "scraper" material.
You get the idea that someone came up with that at the beginning of time,
and all ideas formed at the beginning of time are to be considered beyond
question.
Nor are they willing to sell me large qtys in bulk (we go through quite a
few of them on new bikes on the floor, when the bikes are shipped with
plastic-like pads that make horrid noises when you apply the brakes). Seems
dumb to create all that packaging when it's not needed. Just ship me a bag
of 500 of 'em or whatever, and save the cardboard & plastic. There's enough
of that in our landfills already!
But having said all that, again, they're consistently the best pads on the
market. "Consistent" being the key. Shimano sometimes has great pads, and
sometimes pads that eat rims alive. I've noticed no variation in KoolStops.
They always work well.
--Mike Jacoubowsky
Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReaction.com
Redwood City & Los Altos, CA USA
<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:Matt O'Toole said:Quoted message said:> I just replaced my brake pads with some ones from the
> supermarket. I use a road bike but have fitted the larger
> cantilever pads than caliper pads to get more braking force. The
> only problem is when it rains. A thin black goo spear's on the
> braking surfaces which acts as an amazing lubricant which does not
> clear with breaking and has to be washed off. I was told by
> someone that different pad materials are used for MTB brakes and
> road brakes but MTB brakes have to work in the wet too right? Any
> pointers would be appreciated - I've checked Sheldon's site but
> can't find anything.
Quoted message said:Quoted message said:Pad length doesn't improve braking while pad width is limited by
sweep error caused by pad wear and where the pivot point is. The
pad should not fall off the brake track on the rim as is the case
with cantilevers if you don't keep after them.
Quoted message said:With pad holders and thin pad inserts, one can just change the pads
without ever having to do brake adjustments (which can be a pain).
Quoted message said:Quoted message said:Brake pad material is not a trivial problem. Pads fall to either
side of useful from being too soft and wear prone to ones that get
embedded grit and eat rims alive. In the long run, the Kool Stop
salmon-red pads have been the best all around pads for low wear and
no damage to rims.
Quoted message said:I'll put in another vote for these. Nothing else comes close. The
next best thing are Kool-Stop's own black pads, which aren't bad but
the salmon are definitely better. The only disadvantages are
availability, and that they do wear a bit quicker than others.
Better pad wear than rim wear though, and the salmon pads are a lot
easier on rims. They're also a lot cleaner.
Quoted message said:What I don't understand is why I haven't seen them in bike shops
since a decade ago, when the Mathauser version with the finned
aluminum holder was a popular MTB dress-up accessory. This is one
reason so many of us buy mail order (from a smarter, better LBS in
Massachusetts).
Kool Stop marketing has been poor for a long time. Many shops are
unaware of the products and there seems to be no push to change that.
On top of that, they advertised the salmon red for steel rims and had
other off the wall suggestions.
Quoted message said:Quoted message said:They are also the least expensive if the "continental" model will
work on your brakes.
http://www.koolstop.com/brakes/index.php
Quoted message said:Quoted message said:at the bottom of the page. They have the additional feature that
they cannot be knocked out of the holder, being molded to their
backplate and anchor bolt. Sheldon can sell you some.
http://sheldonbrown.com/harris/brakeshoes.html
Quoted message said:I just went through my last set of these in the smooth post version,
which unfortunately is no longer available.
Quoted message said:I've never had a pad knocked out of a pad holder. All the pad
holders I've seen have set screws to prevent this anyway.
Before Campagnolo put the guide triangles on their brake pad holders,
riders often knocked a brake pad out when dropping the bicycle onto a
wheel. The pads could be knocked out sideways unnoticed. Those
extensions did not come from the original design and are more
important than most people know.
Jobst Brandt
