Cycling UK Forum

Hi guys,

I'm trying to buy a pair of brake pads for my Tektro Oryx cantis, and am overwhelmed by choice on the CTC shop website!

Can anyone recommend me a pair of pads that would work in my Oryxes? Thanks for any help!

Ed

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The only trouble with Koolstop's is they do seem to squeel a bit, at least with canti's. This is my biggest problem with canti's (at the front), so I've ditched them in favour of Fibrax pads at front (in blue @£2.50 from Winstanley's), courtsey of a recommendation from an old forumite (John W? - cheers, however you were ). So far they're pretty good with my Shimano BR550's.

As Gaz says, cartridge pads are the way to go. The other reason is it's much easier to judge when the pad is getting short in the rubber, when there is a contrasting metal shoe sitting next to them. Otherwise there is a nasty metal frame hidden inside the rubber block which becoming exposed, will reduce your nice alloy rims to pulp in a blink of an eye.

Well as the song goes " What a difference a day makes" because this time last night I was searching the Net to find some replacement brake blocks for my Roberts.
Dare I say it the brakes are BR-550 so to make life easier I thought I would buy some of the same blocks that were fitted but all I could find was complete brake sets rather than just blocks.
What was puzzling me was that the blocks appeared to be those that are fitted to V brakes rather than cantilevers which as we all know are different.
I had thought of asking the question on here but I thought I ask enough questions anyhow and people must be getting fed up with me doing so so I struggled on and continued my search.
After consulting the Shimano Brake Docs at about midnight I ordered these :

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0856393960

If only I had waited my problem would have been resolved having now read this thread. I just hope that these do the job !. Will they ?.

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Thanks gaz. Even if they only fit on the rear will be ok otherwise it will be yet more money I have wasted in buying the wrong part.

"Can anyone recommend me a pair of pads that would work in my Oryxes"
I suffered with the pads that came with my Tektro Oryx cantis' and went on to buy a well known brand (twice front & back) that were no good and seem to be in quite a few bike shops . I then decided to just pick another brand up from another shop ," they all recomend the brand they're selling" ! Anyway these which are ASHIMA pads work well in braking , don't grip or bite and don't make a high pitched screech . If i can keep getting them i'll keep using them . Im just about to put my third set (front & back) on , and they have a decent life span.

My personal experience of Tektro brake pads has been very negative, on both an MTB and a folder there was about 75% of maximum wear to the rims in the life of one set of blocks (v-brakes in both cases). Replacing with Koolstop Salmon seems to have dramatically reduced the wear rate, so when I bought Tektro R737 callipers for my Genesis Equilibrium build I swapped the original pad inserts out immediately and fitted Koolstop Dual Compound, which are even better than the Salmon IMO as they seem to have better performance in the dry. On a touring bike with canti's the Koolstop Salmons were a bit prone to squeal as mentioned by someone else.

Other people rave about Swiss Stop, but they are expensive and are they any better than Koolstop?

Dotbike are my usual supplier of Koolstop stuff as they have both a full range and good prices: http://www.dotbike.com/productsF.aspx?FIND=kool+stop

niggle wrote:Other people rave about Swiss Stop, but they are expensive and are they any better than Koolstop?

Yes they are better in my experience. Others may say not.

Expensive?

V brake. Koolstop from Wiggle £10 a pair http://www.wiggle.co.uk/kool-stop-v-bra ... f-inserts/ SwissStop Black from Chain Reaction £18 for 4 http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=42655 So Swiss Stop are actually cheaper, athough to be fair I use the Green High Performance ones at £23 for 4 so 15% more expensive than koolstop. These are the ones that I consider better than Koolstop, I've not tried the black ones.

Dual Pivot. I use both Koolstop dual compound and Swisstop Green on my touring machines. I prefer the Swisstop but Koolstop are perfectly adequate as well. Koolstops frome Wiggle are £12 a pair http://www.wiggle.co.uk/kool-stop-campa ... f-inserts/ Swisstop Black from Chain Reaction are £20 for 4, again SwissStop are cheaper. My preferred green ones are £22 for 4.

So Koolstop versus SwissStop - I'd say not a lot in it on price, and performance is a personal experience depending on rim/brake/block material choices. Tektro, I've used their blocks a couple of times and then fairly quickly switched as I have with stock Shimano blocks.

I've found that my favourite pad depends on whether it's wet or dry. In the dry Kool Stop are good, but they can be a bit exciting in the rain. I found myself tending to overshoot giveway lines. Shimano make pads which are marked Wet&Dry, and although they're nothing like as effective in the dry, they are better than KS in the wet. The disadvantage with the Shimanos is that they are hard and abrasive, so they are heavy on rim wear and produce alot of black residue which stains panniers etc. The compromise I settled for was KS on the back, and Shimano on the front. That way I have the efficient pads where the brake is already less efficient, and the messy pads out of the way of the luggage.