Changing brake pads, poor braking?

[Mrbez]

Hi Guys,

I have the standard pads that came with my Cannondale Synapse, and to be fair, I am not really that impressed with the braking. Usually when descending a hill at speed.

Could this be simply the poor quality of the pads? Is it as simple as buying a set of Kool Stops (That people seem to recommend) and just fitting these?

Thanks.

 

[sabian92]

Pretty much - do you need to adjust your brakes? They play as bigger part in braking as the pads. If you can't get enough pressure on the rims nothing will stop you regardless if you have cheap pads or Kool Stops.

 

[Mrbez]

I had a service last week from my lbs, so I assume that this would have been adjusted in that?

 

[sabian92]

Probably - I would have thought so. Could it be that your pads are just worn out and you need new ones?

How old is your bike and are the pads are originals?

 

[Mrbez]

It's 6 months old, and still on original pads.

I would say that I have only done 300 miles on it?

 

[2Loose]

Changing my pads from stock Shimano to a less hard type massively increased my braking confidence, especially in the wet. Definitely worth a try as it is cheap to test.

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

 

[PpPete]

Would expect pads to last a lot longer than 300 miles.
Kollstops will likely improve things...
But descending a hill at speed, no pad in the world is going to stop you like car's disk brakes would.

 

[MattHB]

I went to koolstops as well from standard shimano jobs and the difference was astonishing.

 

[Sittingduck]

Switching to Koolstop salmons will make a significant difference.

 

[HLaB]

Switching pads will make a significant difference but IMO how you brake also makes a difference, feathering them and cleaning the rims before you actually need to stop and using he rear more for control and the front for actually stopping.