Still racing CX on cantilevers and need to stock up on pads.
Just wondered what the consensus was on long/ thin v-brake style pads, or shorter road style pads?
Some basic googling suggests longer pads wear more evenly, and frankly if they're any lower profile I could do with the clearance. Any drawbacks?
Unsubstantiated waffle ahead:
What might matter most is overall contact area, given that force is probably relatively low (despite protestations from the "well set-up ... throw you over the bars" contingent)
I run longer, cartridge style pads on the TRPs I have fitted to one bike
Think it's a moot point actually, the v-style salmon Kool Stops are twice the price of the inserts for the road style holders I already have...
I'd go with longest and widest you can fit...assuming the larger contact patch improves stopping potential.
Actually, just to be contrarian, I'd say the contact area has little to do with the stopping power (which I know sounds very counterintuitive). The equation for friction force is the Coefficient of Friction x Normal Force. The area this force is applied over doesn't come into it.
Obviously this isn't true for everything. Increasing the contact patch of your tyre increases the grip but in this case a large percentage of the grip is coming from the rubber deforming around the ground undulations and acting more like a toothed gear.
This applies to all friction effects to a greater or lesser effect but in the case of brake block/rim interactions I'd say the vast majority of the force is coming from pure Friction Force rather than 'toothing and slipping'.
Anyway, my experience of running road blocks on my Surly Crosscheck was that if I went off road the blocks wore away in no time. I'm not sure if this was due to road compounds being different and not able to deal with slop as well as mtb ones but after wearing out a road block in 60km I went back to V blocks.
Long on both my commuter and CX bike. Mainly as you have better toe in ability with the longer canti pads. Definitely need that on my Carbon forked CX bike as I get shimmy from the front brakes (and I can't fit a fork mounted hanger).
Anyway, my experience of running road blocks on my Surly Crosscheck was that if I went off road the blocks wore away in no time. I'm not sure if this was due to road compounds being different and not able to deal with slop as well as mtb ones but after wearing out a road block in 60km I went back to V blocks.
This was about the only consensus I could find from googling, that longer blocks wore less quickly. Makes sense really. I don't really suffer from excessive pad wear, I run good pads and stick to flat terrain in winter 😆
Long on both my commuter and CX bike. Mainly as you have better toe in ability with the longer canti pads. Definitely need that on my Carbon forked CX bike as I get shimmy from the front brakes (and I can't fit a fork mounted hanger).
I did wonder, my rapidly atrophying engineering instincts imagined that a shorter block might be more prone to squeal.
Funnily enough the question has come about because my singlespeed has been prone to squeal, but on the front only. The only things that seem to resolve it are very expensive Avid Shorty Ultimate cantis (now on my CX bike) or equally expensive and now-discontinued TRP CX 8.4 mini-Vs which are now on my gravel bike. Any other canti or mini-V squeals like buggery in the wet which makes me thing it's something to do with the construction of the brakes, stiffer/boxier CNCd brake arms seem better than thinner stamped or forged.
I've picked up some Box Racing 3 mini-Vs which I'm hoping are as stiff as the CX 8.4s and they came with long pads, so I'll see how they fare, otherwise I'm picking up some knock-off Shorty Ultimates from Aliexpress 🙄
Would be good to know how you get on.
When I bought my CX8.4s I resisted temptation tempted to pick up some RevoX as well as it was all super cheap at the time. Now nice Cantis are becoming unobtanium!
Yeah, must be why people are still charging £200 a set for Shorty Ultimates! Gutted the CX 8.4s were discontinued as well, I would have had two more sets!