Please recommend some rim brake wheels and/or brake pads. Also, a story.

[Baron Blubba]

Yesterday I headed out for a late morning ride. A beautiful brisk spring day, temps in the low 50's, a nigh immaculately blue sky. I'm riding along on my Ritchey Logic, having a great time, thinking 'man, this is such an awesome ride, an all-time great for sure, perfect weather, great scenery, minimal traffic, friendly drivers, my mind and body are feeling good, phew whadda day!'

Midway through I'm climbing this hill when all of a sudden a great big gust of wind - I mean a GREAT BIG GUST OF WIND - comes out of nowhere and ushers in a fleet of storm clouds. I look into the distance at yonder mountains and see a swirling violent malevolency of rain and fog. A big fat raindrop splatters like oobleck upon my helmet. I'm 12 miles from home. The decision to forego the temptation to finish the climb and *then* turn around is made easy when a second, third, and then seven-hundredth raindrop promptly galosha down upon my helmet (it's a POC Tempus helmet, so has a solid cover over the top, thank goodness). The wind only gets stronger. The rain turns to hale. Of all the days to be riding the only rim brake bike in my collection. Wheels are Dura Ace C24 9000. Carbon with an aluminum brake faring, ostensibly good for wet weather braking. Well my Paceliney friends, you can ostensible your wet weather braking all you want, but I'm here to tell you that I rode home on steep twisty roads with perhaps 10% of the usual braking power, and it was quite scary.
Typically I don't ride this bike in inclement weather, but as we can see, sometimes inclement weather makes an unadvertised-on-your-iphone-weather-app appearance.

So, here are my questions:
1. Are there any brake pads so good that this issue would have been mitigated?
2. Which high performance rim brake wheel has the best stopping power in the wet and on long steep hills?
3. I'm looking for a truly amazing wheelset that *also* has strong and reliable braking performance.
4. Money is no object, so I don't care if BTLOS is the best value, I simply want *the best*. But if BTLOS is *the best*, then I'd gladly ride that!
5. If you've ridden a Dura Ace C24 series wheel (7900, 9000, 9100) *and* say, a Campy WTO Bora Ultra or a top of the line rim brake HED wheel, are the latter much better than the former in terms of overall performance? How about in terms of stopping power?

Thanks for your help!

Edit: PS, this is currently my favorite bike, so I'm not going to shelve it and only ride discs. Even with a better-braking-in-wet set of wheels, this will still be a Dry Weather bike...but I want to be as prepared as can be, in case of situations like the one described above.

[Greyfox]

Have you considered HED Ardennes Black’s which are supposed to be quite good in the wet.

[Baron Blubba]

Originally Posted by Greyfox

Have you considered HED Ardennes Black’s which are supposed to be quite good in the wet.

I have heard as much, yes! They are high on my list of considerations.

[Louis]

Originally Posted by Baron Blubba

sometimes inclement weather makes an unadvertised-on-your-iphone-weather-app appearance

Totally separate from the bike hardware stuff, I suggest that you instead check the NWS site for your local forecast, and depending on what they say, if the ride will be less than a few hours long, the weather radar.

If you search the web there is plenty of information out there suggesting that the Apple weather app is not terribly reliable.

[Hilltopperny]

I have found that a carbon brake pad on an aluminum surface tends to stop me in just about any weather. My current set up is Campagnolo red pads to some Hed made i9 UL25 s and at 230lbs they have not ceased to stop me. I ride in just about any weather, but storms can get pretty nasty sometimes. I usually try and find a little shelter when it starts really dumping rain and try to wait it out if possible.

I have briefly used the Ardennes Black and they were nice wheels, but never really tried them in the rain. Like all the other textures brake surfaces they can be noisy while braking. Performance wise they are a solid set of wheels. They also look pretty nice.

[weisan]

Baron pal, as knowledgeable as you are and someone working in the bike industry with the inside track, I am a bit surprised that you are still needing recommendation or advice.

I have encountered and ridden in violent storms like the one you just went through. They scared the hell out of me.

I have seen video footage of pro riders riding in horrendous conditions but equipped with the best equipments there are and still crashing left and right.

You know what my conclusion is?

Nature vs Man = Nature Wins

....Every Time.

[GregL]

What pads were you using? I’ve had good results with Kool Stop Salmon pads on aluminum rims in wet conditions.

Greg

[makoti]

I admittedly do not ride much in the wet, but I love my Shamals. I sold a set of Enve 3.4's after getting them. I use them with stock Campy Chorus pads without issue

[David in Maine]

Swiss stop BXP blue pads seem to work well for me in bad weather.

David

[rowebr]

Kool stop salmon pads for alloy rims work great in wet conditions for me. But I’m just thinking of wet roads or light rain! For example, good enough for a mountain descent in a light sprinkle on Campy Zondas. However the conditions you were in with cold rain pouring down, that just sucks. I’ve been lucky not to get caught out in that for a long time.

If your braking was unusually bad, obviously check the pads to see if worn out. but also give those rims a good wipe down and maybe freshen up the brake pads with a bit of fine grit sandpaper.

[nmrt]

Swiss stop BXP blue pads + HED Ardennes Black rims or DT Swiss Oxic (narrow rims though at 18 mm internal).

[Jimbo251]

My 2cents,
Carbon; Bora One/Ultra or WTO. The AC3 brake track will toss me over the bars regardless of how wet they are. Weight 170ish.
Alum; Shamal Mille or HED Ardennes Black. Best wet weather braking out there for rim brakes.

[bigbill]

What Greg said, salmon Kool Stops. I spent about half of my adult life in the PNW, and they work.

[KrispyK]

HED ardennes black or DT Swiss 1400 oxic wheels. Or Koolstop Salmon pads.

Also the other parts of the system. Nice compression-less cables and housing like the Yokozuna Reaction housing

[Peter P.]

Just shelve the carbon wheels with the aluminum brake track.

Pick any all aluminum rim and virtually any brake pad will get you home safely in the wet.