Improving Rim Brakes

[Steve vRS]

It may be just me but my brakes appear to be deteriorating. It could of course be the weather!

Should I be cleaning the rims with a particular product to help them? The pads are 900miles old.

Ta

Steve

[itsnotarace]

Just make sure the rims and pads are clean after every ride, give them a wipe over with a damp cloth and clean out any debris from the wear indicators / grooves in the pads

[CoolC]

Set-up is key.

I'm on my phone so don't have the link to hand, but there is a very good article on the Sheldon Brown site about it. There are also quite a few good youtube guides.

It made a huge difference on the canti brakes on my old MTB.

[BadgerBenji]

What kind of brakes are we talking, cantilevers or dual pivots or something else? With some setups you do find the mechanical advantage goes away quite distinctly as the brake pads wear.

[Justin S]

Decent cables, give less friction and better braking power too. Sometimes overlooked. I bought some longer pads recently , which were 5mm longer, so in theory give more friction and seem to work fine, but like you say weather has got wetter and muddier recently. I hope you are talking about road bike brakes !!

[Smitters]

Between the below two sites, there's really no excuses for all things bike mechanicy!

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/

http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help

With the brakes, it'll depend on what sort of brakes, how much cable you have run out, how old the cable is, friction in the outer, whether the rims and pads are clean (likely not very just now), whether you washed the bike and got oil or some other liquid on the rim surface, plus taking into account how you like the lever feel, long and mushy, sharp and grabby. Unless the pads are through to the wear indicators, the compound would (should) be the same, so they shouldn't be an issue, but as with cars, colder ambient temps mean the first stop might not be a brilliant one after pedalling along without braking for a few minutes!