Tag: kool-stop

September 3rd – It’s been a while since I bored you with disc brake pads, so it’s your lucky day – or maybe not.

I favour a hydraulic disc brake on all my bikes, road or off-road. On road bikes, I think the Shimano 785 based callipers are the bees knees; combined with a decent disc and pads, they control my resplendent girth down the steepest of inclines and without snatching.

The only issue I have – and I’ve covered this before – is the mystery of what exactly happens to rear pads in particular when they overheat. Sometimes, despite the best care, pads will develop a sheen, lose the nice grip and squeal horridly. I’ve been trialling aftermarket alternatives all summer to see if other manufacturer’s inserts are better.

I tried Kool Stop, an expensive brand. They were nothing special, and glazed out. Clarks performance was tepid, but lasted well. My best results have been with Uberbike sintered and semi-metallic. These are an interesting design – 785 road pads normally have a backplate with cooling heatsink fins. Uberbike have separated the two, so you can re-use the cooling fins on a slightly thinner pad, which are only £6 a set instead of the £20 for a set from Shimano. And they work a dream.I had one set glaze out near the end of life, but other than that, great.

I thought the front set had taken the same dive while winding down from the Roaches the day before, becoming squeaky and losing friction, so swapped them in the workshop the next day, to find the pads had worn to the spring, and that was the wail.

I really do recommend Uberbike pads.

February 23rd – Back to brakes. This has really caught my attention, sorry.

Following the brake trouble I’ve talked about where pads suddenly lose effectiveness in my hydraulic disc brakes, I’ve decided to try alternatives to the stock Shimano pads. 

I wasn’t expecting them to be any good – I was wrong.

I’ve tried the Kool-Stop first. This company makes a very highly regarded road brake block, and I was interested to see how that translated. After initial disappointment, I’m actually quite impressed.

These resin pads are described as having a ‘rotor saving compound’, which usually means they’re soft and not too effective. My fears seemed to be confirmed on the first two or three days of use, when stopping power was poor and the brakes noisy. 

I then rode in the rain. This appeared to bed the pads in and they’re now every bit as good as manufacturer originals in use. They aren’t quite as snatchy, which is good, to be honest, but they do bite when demanded.

The question is, how long will they last? We shall see. But my initial feeling is that although they took an age to bed in, they’re great pads.

April 8th – Heres a cycling one for the tech heads. Sorry, but it may save some folk hassle.

Disc brake pads. Don’t skimp on them, it’s just not worth it.Two of my bikes have Avid BB7  units fitted. One bike has original factory-fitted Avid brand pads, and the other, which is older, after the originals wore out had some Kool Stop ones, which were good at first but glazed over, reducing the stopping performance. I replaced those with some cheap ones from Decathlon as I was passing at the time and it was easy. They were awful. I was noticing that the Avid pads on the newer bike were far better than the others. Eventually, after cleaning and roughening discs, adjustments and degreasing, I gave up, and ordered some original Avid sintered metal pads. Performance restored.
The moral of all this is that your brakes are your life. Don’t waste time with cheap shit.