On Jan 23, 11:59 pm, "Mike Jacoubowsky" <
[email protected]> wrote:
> > The front brakes on my new Trek 520 make a horrible grinding noise when
> > I stop. The front made a little bit of noise from the beginning, but
> > suddenly got louder. I avoided using it until I got home and found a
> > lot of AL flakes in the pads... so I dug them all out and smoothed the
> > pad with some fine grit sand paper, just to have the same thing happen
> > again within 40 or so miles. What's up? Is the rim self destructing?
> > Will it stop flaking away? Should I change the pads?
>Not sure why you're picking up all the rim bits, but the brake shoes are the
> more-likely source of the problem than the rim. We haven't had problems with
> Avid brakes in the past, but obviously you are. The SD-5 brake on your bike
> uses a non-cartridge brake pad, which tend to last longer than cartridge
> style, but are more difficult to switch out. If you've never set up
> cantilever brakes before, it's a bit tricky the first time, so it may best
> be done at the shop (which, in this case, is Chain Reaction).
AFAIK, the SD-5 brake is a linear pull model. Indeed, it comes with a
non-cart pad. I have no experience with setting up that particular
brake, but LP brakes in general are pretty easy to dial in. Heck, just
did the neighbor's 15 y/o Shimano cantis, and they were rather easy to
set up as well. Just a matter of getting the thing finger tight,
eyeballing, then torquing down.
I have this sneaky feeling that some brake pad compounds go through
some sort of cycle of cure, and if you catch them at the right time,
like those Bontragers I occasionally scorn, you'll get them at just the
right hardness to catch and not release ****. There are indeed,
however, some really bad pads. Late 90s Shimano canti pads never worked
for me--but I can still fix up a late 80s bike with shimano cantis,
resurface the pads with a belt sander and they work great as long as
they've not got too much UV damage. Speaking of which, the dirt cheap
Pyramid clones of the classic 80s Shimano canti stud has worked pretty
well on a few bikes I've used them on. The compound's not as durable as
Kool-Stop stuff, but there's a shitload of material to begin with.
>The pads I'd
> recommend using would be KoolStop, because I've never ever come across a bad
> KoolStop brake pad. They're consistently good pads, unlike others which seem
> to vary from batch to batch.
>
Yup, never used a bad Kool-Stop pad. They make fancy stuff for off
roaders, but city cyclists and tourists will do well with their classic
Eagle Claw for cantis and Continental for calipers.