Shimano brakes and brake pads

[vqdriver]

Help me out. I haven't paid much attention to brake pads at all until recently so I'm not up to speed on what, if any, changes have been happening. Fwiw, I'm talking about caliper brakes on aluminum rims

I've always just used the stock pads that came on my Shimano or campy calipers without issues but I changed my 7700 calipers to 6600g calipers and the braking went in the toilet. No other changes. Initial grab just isn't there, and modulation is moot because I'm having to grab a handful of lever just to slow down. Front is marginally better but that's probably from the fact that it's the front. Locking up is something I used to avoid, but now it's not even a possibility. Imagine fully glazed pads. Or, if you're a disc guy, oily pads.
I've tried alcohol cleaning the rims and sanding the pads. No change.

So here's the question, did something change in the brake design between the Shimano 9sp and 10sp generations? Different pull ratio? Different pad compound?

I may try out the Swisstop bxp pads but won't if there's a fundamental difference in the calipers that make it pointless.

[PacNW2Ford]

Original 6600 pads? They're rubber and now ancient. Yes, Shimano has been updating compounds with each generation, so new pads should help and the aftermarket versions work well too. The calipers make a minimal difference.

[jc031699]

Get some salmon koolstop or Yokozuna pads with the mathauser compound
You'll love em

[bloody sunday]

I use stock shimano - but I found going from an old bike to a new one with the same brakeset - the new is sooo much better. I think it might be because of cables. try tightening or replacing them.

[GregL]

I stopped using Shimano pads when 7700/6500 came out in the late 1990s. The 7700/6500 generation of pads tended to take slivers of aluminum off the rims, leading to poor braking performance as well as rim damage. I started using Kool Stop salmon pads in 1999 at the recommendation of the late, great Sheldon Brown. I didn't use any other pads until this year. I would remove the Shimano OEM pads whenever I purchased new calipers (6600, 7800) and replace them with Kool Stops.

This year, I built up a bike with Dura Ace 9000 and decided to try the Shimano OEM pads. They were better than they were 17 years ago, but still no match for the Kool Stops. After 4-5 rides, I removed the Shimano pads and installed Kool Stop salmon Dura 2 pads. Braking was once again greatly improved!

- Greg

[AngryScientist]

couple of things:

make sure your cable housing ends are prepped well, nice square, clean cuts.

make sure the pads are aligned to the rim correctly, middle of the brake track and perpendicular to braking surface, possibly a hair of toe-in.

yes to replacing pads. if the one's you've got are a million years old and dried out, they will probably suck.

for alu rims, kool stop or swiss stop pads are very good, as are a bunch of others. some may "feel" mushier than others, but i've never experienced a dual pivot caliper brake, even cheap-o tektro brakes that could not lock up an alloy rim.

[oldpotatoe]

couple of things:

make sure your cable housing ends are prepped well, nice square, clean cuts.

make sure the pads are aligned to the rim correctly, middle of the brake track and perpendicular to braking surface, possibly a hair of toe-in.

yes to replacing pads. if the one's you've got are a million years old and dried out, they will probably suck.

for alu rims, kool stop or swiss stop pads are very good, as are a bunch of others. some may "feel" mushier than others, but i've never experienced a dual pivot caliper brake, even cheap-o tektro brakes that could not lock up an alloy rim.

Good suggestions above and make sure the housing is seated in the levers, NO FERRULES in the levers..attach cable with housing before taping housing to handlebars and SQUEEZE brake hard.

[benb]

Shimano makes this confusing as hell but are the 7700 calipers Super SLR (longer cable pull) ?? The 6600 are definitely not.

The whole Super SLR cable pull thing is a huge thing you have to get right to have working brakes.

[vqdriver]

the cables and housing are good.
I've got a set of swisstop bxp on the way, so we'll see how that goes.