Improving my brakes on my Galaxy...?

melw1 · Post by **melw1** » 8 Oct 2007, 8:30pm

Just wondered if anyone had any bright ideas about improving my brakes. Had a scary moment over the weekend, descending a hill with fully laden (with kids) trailer... no matter how hard I squeezed, I couldn't stop :oops:

I slowed down, but had there been something coming at the junction it could have been nasty. OK, now I've learned, I'll leave a greater stopping distance, but is there anything else I can do. I gather that there isn't room to switch them to V brakes. Hub brakes would need extra bits adding to the frame??? Is there anything simple I can do? Thing is, it was dry as well... in the wet it will just be worse...

Are there any really good brake pads I could try??

TIA,

Melanie

PW · Post by PW » 8 Oct 2007, 8:36pm

Which type of brake are they Melanie? If (as I suspect) they're cantilevers brazed onto the frame they can be the strongest brakes around - but they need a bit of know how setting up or the results vary between pathetic & bloody dangerous. Try shoving the brake shoe as far towards the rim as you can & compensating for that by changing the length of the straddle cable. Experiment somewhere you can try the brakes away from traffic!

melw1 · Post by **melw1** » 8 Oct 2007, 8:43pm

Thanks PW - yes they are cantelivers fixed to the frame. Good to know that they can be the strongest around! I shall fiddle... It was a particularly steep hill and i guess I was going a bit fast.... I've found them ok, not brill, but ok up till now. I shall have a play tomorrow with them....

gaz · Post by **gaz** » 8 Oct 2007, 8:48pm

PW · Post by PW » 8 Oct 2007, 8:54pm

If the cantis can be arranged such that the arms point straight out sideways at right angles to the frame you don't need special levers - those are for the "Low Profile" type which point skywards at about 45 degrees. I have an old set of long arm Dia Compes on my tourer, operated by Campag Ergolevers. Even with camping loads that set up will stop very quickly in any conditions.

Post by Si » 9 Oct 2007, 9:59am

If in doubt, ask Sheldon:

LINK

fatboy · Post by **fatboy** » 9 Oct 2007, 11:28am

How clean are your rims? The difference in stopping power on my bike between clean and not clear rims is huge.

ian · Post by **ian** » 9 Oct 2007, 12:31pm

I think I might have a spare (only used to test) set of the Suntour self-energising brakes somewhere if you wanted them. They certainly do what they say on the tin.

melw1 · Post by **melw1** » 9 Oct 2007, 1:42pm

Thank you all v. much for your comments and Ian for your offer! I'm currently away working until tomorrow now, and I'm itching to try out your suggestions.

Ian, can I come back to you re your kind offer later once I've had a chance to fiddle some more?

Si, that link is fabulous.

Re the hubs being dirty - that may well be very probable. Can't remember the last time I cleaned them, and the chain has been oiled in between etc etc.

Thanks again,

Melanie

llanbedrross · Post by **llanbedrross** » 9 Oct 2007, 7:25pm

Hi

Might i suggest using disk brakes, they are very efficient and will be good especially with a fully loaded bike. Good thing is that they arent really affected by the wet or dirt.

A bonus is that if you pull hard on the front brake, you wont be thrown over your handlebars.

Hope this helps!

glueman · Post by **glueman** » 9 Oct 2007, 8:55pm

Not much help Mel but I've never found the performance of canti's too exciting and have fiddled with toe in, blocks and straddle cables for hours. Good blocks and clean rims plus well oiled cables are your best bet.

georgew · Post by **georgew** » 9 Oct 2007, 9:00pm

Replace your brake blocks with KoolStop Salmon ones. Either the Salmon alone or the compound ones. These will make a huge difference.

Post by Si » 10 Oct 2007, 9:28am

llanbedrross wrote:Hi

Might i suggest using disk brakes, they are very efficient and will be good especially with a fully loaded bike. Good thing is that they arent really affected by the wet or dirt.

A bonus is that if you pull hard on the front brake, you wont be thrown over your handlebars.

Hope this helps!

If you find that you can't get enough power to lift the rear wheel with your disc brakes then I would suggest that there is something very much wrong with them! In good grippy conditions a disc brake should easily be able to put you over the bars if you pull too hard. However, discs also have very good modulation so you don't have to fear pulling too hard by accident.

As far as the OP is concerned though, I think that discs would be way OTT in terms of the cost and hassle in fitting them: new wheels (or hubs and spokes at the least), new fork, rear adapter bracket, bodging mudguards and racks to make them fit around the calipers, etc.

ThomasDylan · Post by **ThomasDylan** » 10 Oct 2007, 10:40am

Do NOT go for drum brakes! I fitted them on my commuter and they were very disappointing. Mine were Sturmey Archer.

melw1 · Post by **melw1** » 10 Oct 2007, 11:38am

Right, having re-read your posts and inwardly digested the info from the link Si gave me, hubby and I have done the basics. Starting with the obvious cleaning of the rims with degreaser. Also found that there was too much play - the pads were too far away from the rim, sorted that out, balanced out the two sides so they moved equally etc. Everything *seems* ok for now - haven't been able to replicate the ride at the weekend with the trailer yet though but neither I nor hubby can get the wheels to budge now with the brakes on. So, I'll stick with that for now, test some more with the trailer. If that still isn't enough I'll start on changing the brake blocks for another make, thanks to Georgew for the recommendation. I'll leave the disk brake option as a last resort due to the cost etc.

So, thank you all so much for your advice - really really helpful and much appreciated!