Braking is awful on my commuter bike I just go 3 weeks ago – It has very old veloce single pivots on but new pads. Pads arn’t the best or worst you can get but I have no power. Now I can’t change the levers easily/cost as 8 speed so was thinking of spending £70 or so on some new 2010 veloce dual pivot skeleton brakes. I expect this will improve the braking power enough for me not to feel scared?

dp brakes do work better but yours shouldn’t be that bad, poss no need to spend £70, could also be cables, crap pads, calipers needing a service.

I think its a combination – I think the pads are a bit crap, the calipers are really crap as are the levers (As they bend over time coz I amd braking so hard). I have given the bike a full service re cables and they run smooth. I will sand the pads off and make sure they are not got a “glaze” on the surface (i.e. road grit etc). I might also clean the rims off and make sure they and not shonky 🙂

Here is one of the offending items 🙂 BTW The levers are quite small asl well compared with my other road bike with Ultegras!

BTW we will hopefully find out where the creaking is coming from this afternoon when I try and service the BB area 🙂

*is on the edge of seat*

my money is on pads

well?

Oh I haven’t had a chance to sort the brakes yet – Working this morning and just got a 1 hour training ride in before sunset after spending 2 hours sorting the BB and cranks out – Will have to wait 🙁 Will post up when sorted 🙂

it’s the pads. they are pretty worn, look how close to the plastic shoe they are…. I would agree that cleaning the rims will help as well

I run those pads on my fixed gear because they are the only ones that fit into my old campag front calliper, they are ok but if you can fit good quality modern cartridge ones they are better still.

Right – been away – I decided to buy some discount Veloce 2011 Brakes as I noticed that the front brake pivot was wearing out (wobbly spindle) and moved a great deal when braking.

Just and update for the very few that might have ever been interested. I can now stop !! I reckon the pads were at fault (hard as rock!) but replacing the callipers has helped with the lack of lateral clearance I had with the guards (moved side to side when braking) – Tis all 🙂

also give your rims a good clean and keep then clean

Yup done that as well 🙂 All happy now I will survive my commute to work, well at least stopping anyway.