The brakes on my road bike are OK but not great in the dry, and don’t really work at all in the wet. So I’m hoping to improve performance with some aftermarket pads.

What pads would you roadies choose for mainly dry riding with short hills? I have aluminium rims. Calipers are Tektro R580 I think, and Googling suggests that they are a standard Shimano fitting.

Kool Stop seem to get lots of props and I remember they were THE pads to have back in 1989 so I’m leaning toward them – but then which compound to go for?

i am using Swiss Stop greens just to throw something else into the mix, they do the job.

I don’t know those callipers but cheap tend not to be brilliant regardless.

I’ve got kool stop salmon compound on my road bike and blacks on my commuter. The salmon compound are noticeably better in the wet and last ages so I won’t be going for another set of blacks. I like to think the softer compound will be kinder to the rims too. They feel a little spongy but they are good and much cheaper than Swiss stops.

The standard Shimano pads are pretty good these days too.

I like the Kool Stop Salmon pads

Koolstop salmon ones on my bike, works wellin the wet, so what you need for this wet effing island.

Cheers guys, have added the salmons to my basket.

🙂

Swiss stop were my pad of choice, but am running the ultegra pads that came fitted to my new bike and so far they seem as good (but that might in part be due to ultegra brakes being better than what I had before)

^ Ultegra pads are awesome, they have a noticeable build-up of power / friction as they heat up in the first few seconds. I really like them. Good brakes all-round, but much of it is the new pad compound.

Just reporting back to confirm that the Kool Stop salmon pads are approximately a million times better than the standard Tektro ones.

Bike stops really quickly and with easy modulation now.

🙂

Shimano R55C3 (stock Ultegra pads), in ordering from Germany, are a third the cost of Swissstop, and just as good performance.

If you had Tektro pads, anything will be better than the stock pads in them.

Nobody recommending Superstar?

I’ll get my coat…