Brake pad scare

[benb]

I have a set of Ksyrium Elites that have been on my Trek Domane for about 6 years. (Ultegra rim brakes)

I think I've always had the black Shimano pads on this bike. This spring I put some Kool Stop Salmon pads on, for the most part I am riding this bike in a wider range of weather than before.

To my surprise they are horrific in the rain. I won't say I "almost crashed" but today was one of the scariest rainy rides I've had in a very long time. And I had just cleaned the brake tracks and pads after my last ride.

Has anyone seen this? Any other pads I can try? I can go back to the Shimano black pads I guess but in the past I have always preferred the Kool Stops but they really don't seem to like the Mavic brake track in the rain, and there is definitely no point in running a wet conditions pad if it doesn't work in the wet.

I have seen some recommendations to try the Blue swiss stop pads.

[CNY rider]

That seems weird.
Kool Stop salmon are usually great in bad weather.
Did your alignment change with the switch in pads?

[benb]

I doubt it, they've been working great (and not squealing) in the dry.

I just looked at the instructions I definitely didn't install them backwards.

I am wondering if I somehow got them contaminated with something.

There was tons of stuff in the water/rain today. Lawn runoff and such, tons of foamy bubbles in the puddles. Also lots of pollen.

I have another set of them. But it was honestly dangerous enough today I need to be very careful.

[Wunder]

That's weird, probably contaminated. I've found salmons to be good in the rain, the one pad that is better (for regular alloy or ceramic coated brake tracks) are Swiss Stop BXP.

[m_sasso]

I would pull the pads and give them a good cleaning with Isopropyl Alcohol and quick sanding with some sand paper and go over you rim brake tracks with Isopropyl Alcohol. Does not sound like the tipical behavior of Kool Stop pads, sounds more like contamination to me? What is the age of the pads? How hard are the pads? Any extended exposure to sun or high heat?

[p nut]

My past experience with Kool Stop folks is that they’re super responsive and helpful. I’d imagine they’d send you a new pair to try. Or even a different compound. Although salmon is recommended for the exact environment you ran them in.

[dgauthier]

Yeah that is not right. Kool Stop Salmon on aluminum rims should stop much better and resist fade waaaay better than Shimano black in both dry and wet.

How had you liked them in the dry until now? You should have already noticed better performance.

Are your Ksyrium's brake tracks plain aluminum or ceramic? KoolStop has a green compound specifically for ceramic coated rims. Also, I have had great experience with the "Dura" type salmon pads, but have never used the "Dura 2" shape. Which are you using?

Maybe you ran through an oily puddle?

Other than cleaning the pads as m_sasso suggested and waiting for rain again, perhaps follow p_nut's suggestion and reach out to Kool Stop. It's always possible your pads are defective in some way. Beyond that, people on this forum praise Swissstop, though I myself have no experience with them.

[benb]

Pads are less than a month old and I cleaned everything with isopropyl alcohol this morning before the ride...

So really not sure, maybe I will call Koolstop.

For 100% dry weather I would have said I have usually thought the Black Shimano pads were better than Kool Stop.

But yah I have run countless Kool Stop Salmon pads over the years and never seen anything like this on V-brakes, Cantis, or road brakes.

[RoosterCogset]

Maybe Iso alcohol dissolves the pads? Swisstop BXP -- another plug for those I guess (the blue ones)

[C40_guy]

You were out in that today Benb? We got 2" in Sandwich, mostly mid day!

[benb]

Yah. I knew I was going to get rained on, didn't know it was going to be nearly that bad. It was like riding through a stream for parts of the ride. Ever since I got Covid everything is stacking up to make it hard to ride, so I had decided I was riding no matter what. And it had been 90F+ the previous two days (I rode tuesday but not wednesday) and I didn't want to skip another day. At least it wasn't cold in the rain.

I am somewhat convinced there was something not normal in the road since they just put down miles of those stupid "tar snake" crack sealers. You know the stuff where they put so much of it down that you wonder why they didn't just chip seal the road or repave because the road is now 50% crack sealer. Whatever it was there were foamy bubbles everywhere yesterday.

My middle fingers on both hands are sore this morning from grabbing the brakes so hard on the hoods.

The bike had an incredible amount of black gunk in the brake pads and rims for < 1 hour riding in the rain. You'd have thought I was cleaning a chain.

I just ordered a set of the Swissstop pads though, why not.

[batman1425]

Where did you get the pads from? Could they be counterfeit? During the COVID surge a lot of fake stuff ended up on Amazon, EBay, etc. and there could be some of that still floating around.

[benb]

I got them at the LBS. (Cycleloft)

[MikeD]

I would try the Koolstop salmon pads or Shimano pads for severe conditions if riding in the rain, given that pretty much all rim brakes work poorly initially until the water gets wiped off the rims by the pads.

[benb]

LOL.. this is about the Kool Stop Salmon pads not working in the rain.

I do wonder if something is up with the ones I got. Like maybe they were sitting for years since everything is disc now.