!. Swissstop Greens or Koolstop Salmons are both good pads ime, wet and dry. Road brakes seem to vary a lot, I had some cheap Tektros on my first road bike that were truly awful. Good road brakes with decent pads will slow you down fast. If they don’t there’s something wrong.
2. On the bars front, compact drops – they’re closer to the tops – are a lot easier to use, which means you’ll actually use them more. FSA do some cheap ones for about 30 quid, which are fine. Hardened roadies will sneer, but these are people who think you’ll go to hell if you don’t wear white socks.
3. People are obsessed with the idea that they need 120psi to go fast. In reality, 120psi feels fast because the tyres are rock solid so you feel every bit of roughness on the road surface. Depending on how heavy you are, you can run a lot less – say 90-100psi – without losing any speed at all, but they won’t feel as fast. This is straight from someone who ought to know because they’re a veteran road bike journo.
4. What other people have said about 25s rather than 23s – Conti GP4000S in Black Chilli are amazingly grippy wet and dry. Cheap and nasty tyres are just scary.
5. This all works for me, but I’m just a normal sort of cyclist. I absolutely concede in advance that anyone who disagrees with me is probably correct.
