Brake blocks

[Old Timer]

Nice one OT!

Out here in EA, we may not need to brake very often, but when we do, we need them to work, I bet like me you've had the experience of meeting a tractor or lorry lurking around an unsighted bend on a narrow country lane.

I've spent a lot of time tinkering with my brakes/rims to get them to an optimal level, done some reading on the subject - particularly on Sheldon Brown's website, and he's a great exponent of the bias being mainly on the front brake. Having ridden mainly in London, I was a bit nervous about this at first, experience telling me that a rear skid is controllable, whereas losing traction/locking on the front courts inevitable disaster, particularly if you're turning at the time .

Over recent months though, I've been practising the technique(though for obvious reasons I've never got the rear wheel to lift off the ground!), and would now never go back to my old habits, you simply get far more retardation from the front brake. Unless it's wet, I now only use the rear to pulse in added braking force whilst smoothly slowing with the front. The extra weight of an ebike also means that braking/coming off the power has to be anticipated a lot earlier as well.

Happy riding .

Must admit that there are a lot of Hares around north norfolk this year (the farmers will be happy) they seem to always be on a collision course with me
Now that the front brake is more powerful and quiet I am using it a lot more. I was quite surprised today, watching the front wheel when I was braking and noticed how much flex there was in the front( non suspension) forks, that might be down to the extra weight of the conversion maybe.

 

[Old Timer]

The new proper pattern brake blocks arrived this morning, for sure my old blocks have hardened over the years. Now, after lunch I`m gonna remove the blocks that I pain stakenly filed to profile and start over with the new softer rubber blocks I`m a glutton for punishment but if something can be made to work better then I can`t stand knowing it and not implementing it

 

[Old Timer]

New blocks installed Surpringly I didn`t have to file them hardly at all. I reckon the old blocks had worn to the normal sized Mavic rim which was obviously the wrong angle for the much narrower alien front wheel combined with the wear on the old blocks. The new blocks are nice and soft rubber and although they mount via a thread and nut rather than an allen bolt they definitely have more angle adjustment( development I suppose) and that is what has helped. Without running them in and straight on the road they are very grippy and there is loads of rubber on them to wear away. I don`t mind if they wear fast because I`d rather have good brakes than economy and besides I did grab an offer of three sets so have two sets in hand. I think if I store them in the cool in maybe a sealed plastic bag that might prevent them from drying out (but I`ll take advice on that)

so! centre pull canti`s can be made to work well with a bit of extra care in set up.

 

[flecc]

Good to hear you cracked that problem Dave, and at minimum cost.
.