The brakes on my road bike are terrible even in the dry. I've changed the pads for swissstop ones, and change the cables - still rubbish!
They are unbranded dual pivot ones, with the pads at the very bottom of the adjustment range. Would long drop help here?? My theory is the leverage is reduced as the pads are further away from the pivot on the short drop brakes, with long drop they'd be at the top of the adjustment range?
does any of this make sense?
its an old trek 1000 with mudguard clearance.
terrible in what way? compared to what, they aren't as powerful as some discs granted but you have less traction anyway.
Change the calipers to something shimano - I had unbranded on my allez changed then to tiagra - sooo much better.
Clean rims put Kool Stop salmon pads in and that will improve braking. or get some Zero G Ti Brake Calipers.
are you comparing them to disc then yes they are rubbish live with it.
Are they rubbish compared to what they used to be like?
I have some very cheap Miche dual caliper brakes which are excellent.
Are you sure you're not using the wrong kind of levers (cantis vs calipers, road pull and all that confusing stuff) ?
rubbish compared to other road bike brakes
if they are cheap then maybe they are flexing so you might find a more expensive set of shimano or campag offer an improvement.
Do you have one piece pads or cartridge insert types? A decent metal cartridge pad seems to offer a lot better performance than a one piece pad.
Have you tried degreasing your rims?
Plenty emulsified oil in the road spray these days.
Would long drop help here??
No. You need long or short drop depending on the clearance on the frame/fork - so if you can position your pads at the moment so they hit the rim you have the right drop.
I've got some Campag Veloce on one bike, work really well, and some long drop Tektro on another - the Tektro are really wooden by comparison, I'd go with what Billybob says and change to a branded brake.
I agree on the branded brake thing, I've had basic shimanos with upgraded cartridge pads for a couple of years now, more than enough power (enough power for stoppies at traffic lights, until the shop told me to stop doing that... 😳 ).
p.s. In fact, I'm selling those very brakes now, £30 for the pair, new pads. They're short drop models though.
Is the calliper a single pivot type?
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or double?
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If its single get a double and tbh any will do*.
drop dependant of course.
if they are single pivot, get double pivot as mentioned above.
Other ways to improve performance - try filing the brake pad surface back a bit to get 'fresh' pad exposed, rather than potentially contaminated/glazed. Clean the rims with a fuzzy green backed sponge & very hot very soapy water. Metal-backed pads are more powerful and give a much better feel at the lever.
From my bmx days.. chrome rims stop better than painted or silver aluminium stuff. Clean your rims with kitchen cleaner like Cif power foam stuff or something like that (the green one). Deglaze your pads by rubbing against concrete surface so they're matte rather than shiny rubber.
upgrade to even cheap shimano often works wonders.