V Brake Health

[Scottyf]

Hello All,
I'm still using V brakes which in the better weather have proved more than adaquate at throwing myself over the bars.

Now Autumn/Winter is here i've removed the acctuator which stops you from huriling yourself over the bars. In a vain hope of improving stopping power.

However what i'm now finding with the weather and spray that my brakes almost need to go round the rims a couple of times to clear the water off before giving me a decent stopping performance.

Is there any way I can increase my braking force. This is only for the front and the rear I can easily lock. Its more the additional pre planning I am now having to do.


This morning I managed to hit the back of a car that went to over take a bus only to stop when he decided he couldn't get through the gap.

No damage more amusement as I hit the back of the cars bumper and bounced back. Still on the bike but I thought if I had better brakes I would have been fine.

I mean I'm now even looking at buying a new disk compatiable front wheel hub and swapping out the brakes to some thing more powerful.
However if there's maybe a trick or rim cleaning that can help i'm all ears.

I used to when alot younger put coca-cola round the rim while it was warm to make the rims sticky so that I had epic braking power. But thats when I was 10.

 

[NRG]

What pads are you using Scott? The Avid 20Rs are good, a bit fast wearing but work well in damp conditions, also the Koolstop Salmons work well and are designed for wet conditions and feature a small leading edge lip to clear the muck away from the rim before the whole pad contacts the rim...

 

[kitchenman]

Hello All,
I'm still using V brakes which in the better weather have proved more than adaquate at throwing myself over the bars.

Now Autumn/Winter is here i've removed the acctuator which stops you from huriling yourself over the bars. In a vain hope of improving stopping power.

However what i'm now finding with the weather and spray that my brakes almost need to go round the rims a couple of times to clear the water off before giving me a decent stopping performance.

Is there any way I can increase my braking force. This is only for the front and the rear I can easily lock. Its more the additional pre planning I am now having to do.


This morning I managed to hit the back of a car that went to over take a bus only to stop when he decided he couldn't get through the gap.

No damage more amusement as I hit the back of the cars bumper and bounced back. Still on the bike but I thought if I had better brakes I would have been fine.

I mean I'm now even looking at buying a new disk compatiable front wheel hub and swapping out the brakes to some thing more powerful.
However if there's maybe a trick or rim cleaning that can help i'm all ears.

I used to when alot younger put coca-cola round the rim while it was warm to make the rims sticky so that I had epic braking power. But thats when I was 10.

I nearly went into a white van that had stopped suddenly in front of me. Nothing to do with brakes. Alot to do with missing the assit button with my finger and not having a freewheel currently - which is proving interesting ...

 

[Scottyf]

Sorry I don't know the exact brand I will take a look at lunch. There probably not far off being worn out if i'm completly honest which probably isn't helping.

They are the quite long if as you say quick wearing pads.
So far though the rims and pads are taking a bashing and my rear ones constantly sound like they have dirty in even after cleaning both rim and pad.

I'll take a look into the new pads though as chances are mine are really not that far off the wear lines anyway.

Might be worth me purchasing one of those brake boosters to help in the wet...
I can only imagine it will get worse as the real bad weather comes into play.

 

[wurly]

Yep, i am going to be in the same situation soon with my new biuld. V brakes are excellent in the dry, but not so good this time of year. My missus wore out a rim by excessive use of the brakes. I told her to ride like me and not use them :0).
I have never had discs on a bicycle before. How much better are they?

 

[Scottyf]

I don't believe the stopping power is much more significant that a correctly setup V brake.
But the issue I have is that once applied the brakes tend to go round the rim cleaning the rim of water / much and road debris before acheiving any real stopping power.

As you can imagine in the above example where i needed to brake fast I lost a couple of meters while the 700c wheel rims are cleaned.

I've adjusted my riding to suit but travelling at an average speed of 19mph is really putting the strain on the brakes when I need to stop quickly.

Least disks will not be affected in the same way as a rim brake. Ok there's a weight penalty but it won't be noticable with an ebike at all.
Also less maintance and easier pad adjustment.

 

[Alimages]

What about a hydraulic V brake? I'm sure i've seen kids on trials style mountain bikes with this set up.

 

[catsnapper]

Magura Hydraualic V brakes are fine, but still have the same problems in the wet, and can wear normal rims quite rapidly. They're pretty much standard on trials bikes, although discs are getting more popular

Alan

 

[Scottyf]

There's only so many times I can bounce of the back of a car before getting bored.

Alan (Catsnapper) has just pm'd me a very good deal of which I cannot refuse so it looks like I'll be upgrading to a disk very soon!

Hopefully this will stop me from riding into the back of everything during the wet and windy winter.

 

[Mussels]

I don't believe the stopping power is much more significant that a correctly setup V brake.
But the issue I have is that once applied the brakes tend to go round the rim cleaning the rim of water / much and road debris before acheiving any real stopping power.

As you can imagine in the above example where i needed to brake fast I lost a couple of meters while the 700c wheel rims are cleaned.

I've adjusted my riding to suit but travelling at an average speed of 19mph is really putting the strain on the brakes when I need to stop quickly.

Least disks will not be affected in the same way as a rim brake. Ok there's a weight penalty but it won't be noticable with an ebike at all.
Also less maintance and easier pad adjustment.

In the dry my road bike with centre pull brakes is probably as good as my ebike with disks but I much prefer the disks, more predictable and easier to set up (after getting my head round how the adjustments work).
As well as being more predictable in the wet disks don’t wear out expensive rims. Getting the pads right is trial and error, organic aren't so good in the wet and will wear very quickly.

 

[Scottyf]

I'm sure I could pick a better pad and get something more suitable.
But if Alan is able to get mean new front wheel with shimano disk hub and calipers I'll be a happy boy. As well as having a spare wheel would mean I have spares of front and back.

I just know that riding through winter will be better if I use disk rather than v brakes in the weather.
I'm sure I'll have to change to a deeper tread tire too soon.
Marathons don't grip that well when pushing it.

Will update soon!