Quote:
Originally Posted by vqdriver
let's focus on the braking then. all the other stuff, weight, "speed", sound, i can decide for myself if it's for me, but the braking is a function that just absolutely needs to be there. are we at the point that standard rim brakes (with whatever recommended pads) will work reasonably well? riding in populated areas, there can be lots of surprises some days.
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I didn't weigh in on the previous stuff.
For braking the carbon rims I've used in the rain (Reynolds DV46 and Stinger 6) have been fine. There's an initial moment of nothing and then a lot of braking power. In fact when I was on aluminum rims I had two 100% panic moments on steep downhills in the rain where I was 100% on the brake levers and the bike wasn't slowing. It wasn't accelerating, it just wasn't slowing. Like being in a car sliding 5 mph on ice.
With carbon rims I'd drag the front brake regularly in the wet to keep them sort of primed if you will. I avoided using the rear brake because usually I was in a race and I didn't want people behind me to think I was braking.
My car used to be like that also. It had big brakes, aluminum center "hat" with steel rotors, grooved and cross drilled. They cooled down really well, I could brake really hard multiple times from higher speeds without any problems. Problem was that the rotors cooled too well in regular use. In the wet or in the cold I actually manually dragged the brakes when I could (so I'd lightly ride the brakes if it was clear behind me). In the rain the brake dragging made a huge difference, it would take maybe half a second of pressure before the brakes started to bite, with the "brake dragging" it would bite right away.
Koolstop salmon pads on carbon.
I don't even change pads between aluminum and carbon, haven't since 2010 or so. In 2008-2009 I had carbon clinchers and tubulars so no pad changes anyway, and before that I didn't change pads, was using carbon brake track tubulars since 1995? whenever Zipp 340s/440s came out.