Kool-Stop MTB Salmon brake pad weakness
 

The stupid "angled tip and plow" on the leading edge of the brake pad is
positively uesless. I put them on the front expecting them to increase
power over my old ones. The result was mushy, weak braking, and lots of
squeal. I figured the plow only served to keep a large portion of the pad
away from the rim, so I ground only the plow portion off. Lo and behold, no
squeal and excellent brake power now. I wonder why they would implement
this marketing gimmick if it didn't help at all and actually created squeal.

Grind off the plow if you get these pads.

--
Phil, Squid-in-Training

Phil, Squid-in-Training wrote:
The stupid "angled tip and plow" on the leading edge of the brake pad is
positively uesless. I put them on the front expecting them to increase
power over my old ones. The result was mushy, weak braking, and lots of
squeal. I figured the plow only served to keep a large portion of the pad
away from the rim, so I ground only the plow portion off. Lo and behold, no
squeal and excellent brake power now. I wonder why they would implement
this marketing gimmick if it didn't help at all and actually created squeal.

Grind off the plow if you get these pads.

Can you post pictures of the modified pads?

P.S. How long until you graduate to full squidness? ;)

--
Tom Sherman - Near Rock Island

Phil, Squid-in-Training wrote:
The stupid "angled tip and plow" on the leading edge of the brake pad is
positively uesless. I put them on the front expecting them to increase
power over my old ones. The result was mushy, weak braking, and lots of
squeal. I figured the plow only served to keep a large portion of the pad
away from the rim, so I ground only the plow portion off. Lo and behold, no
squeal and excellent brake power now. I wonder why they would implement
this marketing gimmick if it didn't help at all and actually created squeal.

Grind off the plow if you get these pads.

trouble is, the plow is what stops the grit getting under the pad &
embedded - the /only/ reason to buy these pads. agreed, they can be
mushy and squeal like mad, but the plow /does/ work in foul weather.

are you using shimano or campy calipers? if they're the fixed toe
shimano's, you're going to have mushy brakes anyway. campy are great
because pad mountings are orbital and you can adjust to parallel to get
very positive brakes /and/ minimal grit. haven't gotten around to
installing them yet, but i recently bought a set of orbiting pad holders
for shimano. i'm interested to see if they address this issue.

http://biketoolsetc.com/index.cgi?id...item_id=KS-RHD

trouble is, the plow is what stops the grit getting under the pad &
embedded - the /only/ reason to buy these pads. agreed, they can be mushy
and squeal like mad, but the plow /does/ work in foul weather.

Grit getting embedded is no problem for me at all. I actually smear mud on
my rims to clean off the brake pads after a long dry spell... my brakes work
wonderfully after these treatments. Granted, I DO have 2 or 3 long, deep
gouge marks the diameter of sand grains clean through the pad fore and aft
with *no permanent embedding*, but the braking is predictable, strong,
linear, and nearly silent. Having said that, I would rather have permanent
good performance than longer pad life.

The pad life is actually rather surprising, especially after maybe 10 muddy
MTB rides and 300 dry miles with a previous set of silent black Kool-stops
in Avid cartridge holders. I'll take a picture of them with their gouges
when I get the chance.

are you using shimano or campy calipers? if they're the fixed toe
shimano's, you're going to have mushy brakes anyway. campy are great
because pad mountings are orbital and you can adjust to parallel to get
very positive brakes /and/ minimal grit. haven't gotten around to
installing them yet, but i recently bought a set of orbiting pad holders
for shimano. i'm interested to see if they address this issue.

I wrote "MTB" in the subject... unless you were thinking that I might
actually have some old Campy MTB stuff: ha! On my road bike with original
old champagne-finish 105 brakes and pads, I get very good squeal-free and
wet-performance braking with fixed toe mountings. When I bought them, I
thought I would have to replace the pads, but their performance surprised me
and I kept them on.

--
Phil, Squid-in-Training

The pad life is actually rather surprising, especially after maybe 10
muddy MTB rides and 300 dry miles with a previous set of silent black
Kool-stops in Avid cartridge holders. I'll take a picture of them with
their gouges when I get the chance.

http://plaza.ufl.edu/phillee/brk.jpg

--
Phil, Squid-in-Training