Are brakes suppose to stop you when its raining?

[ColinJ]

Get some steel rims.

" ... and then you will really know what poor wet weather braking is like!"

I nearly met my maker when I was about 12 years due to wet steel rims. I was bombing down Barkers Butts Lane in Coventry in the rain towards the traffic lights at the bottom of the hill and braked when the lights changed to red as I approached them. The cross traffic started moving but I couldn't stop! I shot between 2 fast-moving cars and somehow emerged on the other side of the lights in one piece.

Decent brake blocks work pretty well on wet alloy rims, providing you use that early braking technique to wipe the rims before heavier braking. It is easy to get your front and/or rear wheels to lock up in the wet and you don't need more braking power than that!

 

[HovR]

I hold the brakes on just enough to make contact with the rims before needing to brake to clear the rims of water, then apply as needed - Works fine for me, only takes a second or two to clear the rims. Then again I am using quite soft brake pads.

 

[judder]

I now use Swissstop flash pro green £21 from Wiggle for 2 pairs.
I know they are more expensive but they are a lot better in the wet than the standard shimano 105 or ultegra I have previously used.
As the brake pads are the only things used to stop. I think its money well spent.

 

[MontyVeda]

Does that apply to bicycles? The reason you do it in cars without ABS is because a sliding tyre is far less effective than a rolling one at stopping the car, the pulsing means you wont be locking the wheels up for very long if you do, so you stop quicker and can still steer the car. Not sure the same applies to bikes.

Once the rim clears of water/cack, my brakes work ok. Still best find myself planning much farther ahead in the rain though.

Regardless of the vehicle, the most efficient point of braking is just before the wheel locks. Once the wheel has locked, inertia kicks in, combated by friction, which isn't what you want for your tyre.

I don't 'pulse' the brakes, but i don't lock the wheel either.


Colin... were they those chrome plated silver rims sported on many a bike in the 70's? Evil invention!

 

[2wd]

Thanks for the replies

I'll look at replacing them for a good set as soon as.

For the sake of a few quid it's better to stop in time.

Until then its a sandpaper jobby

 

[Holdsworth]

I'd like to know how much of a difference that black alloy muck that builds up on the rims affects braking. I try to wipe it off as often as I can with a baby wipe but it always accumulates fast in wet weather.

 

[HovR]

That black muck (not oil) gets all down my forks in wet weather - A complete pain to keep clean. Probably something to do with the pads being the ones that were on the bike when I restored it back to running condition, so quite old. They work well though, so I don't really want to swap them out.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Why don't road bikes have disc brakes?

 

[Bman]

http://www.cyclechat.net/threads/road-bikes-why-no-hydraulics.81626/

 

[scouserinlondon]

Even on my shitty tektro brakes koolstop make a BIG difference.

 

[scouserinlondon]

I've often wondered whether it not upgrading my tektro calipersvwith some shimano would make a difference?

 

[Davidc]

I have tektro cantilever with koolstop dual compound on my tourer and they're good in the wet, even better in the dry.

On the front of my round-town mtb with V brakes I have the koolstops with 3 pads of different compounds. I ordered them in eror, but next time will order them deliberately. They're as good as the dual compound ones and wear better.

The original pads which came with the tektro brakes weren't very good and were hopeless in the wet. The Shimano ones on the mtb were acceptable but not as good as the koolstops.

 

[Mike!]

The canti's on my old cross bike were terrible in the wet, even with coolstop. One of the reasons i sold it, can't be having an all year round commuter that won't stop very well in he wet!!