Kool-stop salmon pads - wear rate?

[Jonathan M]

I'm looking to fit some of these in place of the Shimano one piece blocks that I'm currently running in my Tektro dual calipers, the main reason that I'm looking at changing is because while the Shimano ones work, the rate of wear in the wet is pretty poor, as an example yesterday saw off some front pads that arguably were only half worn at the start of the ride.

So would the kool-stop salmons give better braking performance and a better rate of wear than the Shimano's? Obviously need to buy some holders for the kool-stops, probably the fibrax ones, unless anyone can direct me to a cheap source of Shimano holders??

 

[GrahamG]

The one guy has a link to an online brake supplier in his forum signature - I meant to bookmark it as they had every imaginable brake pad/shoe you could ever want for both road and mtb.

In terms of wear, I found the salmon pads pretty hard wearing when I had a set on the front brakes of my old commuter - to the extent that I wasn't convinced that the wet performance could be better otherwise they'd surely wear quicker!

 

[jimboalee]

I use Fibrax on all my bikes except three.

Moulton Mini – original blocks ?????
Pug 531 – Mafac , at ridiculous cost.
Apollo County – Leather faced for chromed rims. Very early braking in the wet – scary sometimes , but when they've squeezed dry, they lock up the wheels.

Fibrax in the rest. Good braking but they wear quick. My opinion is a set of blocks costs less than new rims.

 

[Tynan]

wear out half a block in a single ride?

are your rims in good order? that's absurd wear

 

[RedBike]

There was another topic like this not so long ago. I can easily get through a set of new pads in a ride off-road. (Thank heavens for discs).

I'm afraid the Kool stop pads wear even quicker than Shimano Dura-ace pads (I've no idea which ones you have). The Kool Stop pads do seem to work better though!

 

[goo_mason]

Kool Stops do tend to wear away in about 3 or 4 months of 20-mile-a-day commuting. At least my first set did.

 

[John the Monkey]

Goo's spot on - they don't last long (although they're very kind to rims). I'm trying the Dura Ace wet/dry pads on mine at the moment - stop nicely, but feel a bit scrapey.

 

[fossyant]

No pads last long in the wet - they go at an alarming rate.... ohh nice new pads....1 wet ride later...flippin' 'eck - nearly gone.....!!!!

 

[Jonathan M]

wear out half a block in a single ride?

are your rims in good order? that's absurd wear

Yeah, rims are fine, the ride included 1000m of climbing (and therefore descent) so on the wet & crappy lanes I was on in the west pennine area then the brakes had their fair share of work to do. Add to the fact I'm 16 stone, on a fairly heavy bike, then I ask a lot from my stoppers at times.


Ok, from these replies it would seem that I don't stand to gain much by switching to kool-stops, I'll stick with the shimano's which I can get for less that a fiver a pair.

I agree btw with the idea of a fast wearing pad saving the rim, just wondered if the kool-stops were the holy grail of good braking, with good wear rates.

 

[Lazy-Commuter]

Going by the fact that just about every post about brakes on here seemed to include someone saying how good Kool-Stops were, I invested in a set a couple of weeks ago. I have to say that they do stop very well, though my only previous experience is with the OE set and the "cheapest set in the LBS".

I'm just waiting to see how well they last. My problem is that my ride home from work takes me through a quarter of a mile or so of boggy gritty mud to smeg the wheels and rims up nicely just before I do the quick descent into the village where I live. And it all goes scrapity-scrape!!