Brake blocks for steel rims

[mattsccm]

I have just acquired 2 Dawes Kingpins. The old chap who owned them, since new in 1984 going by the SA hubs, has maintained them beautifully, especially of (non riding) late with what looks to be industrial quantities of WD 40. Everything! Once I have decontaminated the rims, I find contact cleaner or petrol works very well and save the large tub of fire and brimstone I have for the kids I teach, I will need to replace the brake blocks.
Now I know that at best I will be getting a vague reduction in velocity rather than arm wrenching halts so can anyone suggest which type of block might give me a fighting chance of stopping on steel rims?
Longevity isn't an issue as these are bikes for cluttering up the garage and pottering around on holiday once every five years.

[gregoryoftours]

Normally you use leather faced blocks like these for steel rims-
http://www.innertubeshop.com/products/f ... wwod8eINzA

[bazzo]

Hi,

Just be careful what you buy, I needed some old fashioned brake blocks for a bike I'm building. I bought some off ebay which were of such poor quality as to be unusable.

[robc02]

I recently bought some of these Fibrax blocks for my 1950s Humber roadster. They are, perhaps, a bit better than the original Raleigh ones.... but not a lot!

Id be interested to hear of anyone's experience with the leather faced ones.

[gregoryoftours]

Well it's been years but from what I remember the leather faced ones are great in the dry, and marginally better than other compounds in the wet - i.e. still pretty useless. I don't know if any better performance would be got by using for example Koolstop salmon blocks on steel rims in the wet.

[rjb]

i asked the same question last year - viewtopic.php?f=5&t=89682
I am slowly modifying my pair of kingpins to alloy rims 20" 406 to replace the 500a original wheels. This involves using drop bolts to lower the brakes to meet the rims.

[Vorpal]

Fibrax Raincheaters....
http://www.fibrax.com/rim-pads/road/com ... per-blocks

[ardeidae]

.

[Brucey]

I used to use the leather faced brake blocks and they are better than ordinary rubber ones for sure. However they have a flaw which is that the leather can get choked with crud, and once this happens they are no good. Any oil contamination (eg from the rear hub) is especially bad. So it is a good idea to clean/degrease the leather facing from time to time.

cheers

[RobC]

On my steel front rim I found the leather-faced pads to be worse in the wet than just 'normal' rubber ones. And they squeaked to high heaven! Went back to basic - but longer - rubber ones and the squeaking stopped.

I find modern discs to be ridiculously over the top in their power. No subtlety or progression to the braking. Perhaps useful for fast downhill mountain biking, but I'd rather my wheels didn't lock up every time I used the brakes pootling around town. I actually really like commuting with a steel rim - I ride 16 miles each day through central London. I know its braking power is nothing like modern discs, but for my riding style it's perfect. It encourages me to look at the road ahead a lot more than I used to, and I'm now very careful and chilled out in the wet. I think this makes me a safer, more gentler rider. Commuting time hasn't gone up after I slowed down in this way either - you still get stuck at the same lights and the same jams as everyone else. Plus I know the rim's pretty much never going to wear out.

[mjr]

In my opinion, Revolution Advanced Road pads are the best of the modern ones. Fibrax Raincheaters are the best that have been around since I was first rode steel rims. Ebay specials are a world of disappointment. Alhonga BMX blocks are surprisingly good given they're not designed for steel, but wear out very fast.

[SA_SA_SA]

In my opinion, Revolution Advanced Road pads are the best of the modern ones....

Those look the same as the Brompton ones which I think are branded fibrax ash410 ones
which are good in dry adequate for rear in wet on steel.

[Stradageek]

I gave up and rebuilt the wheels with alloy rims from a more modern (scrap) bike - brakes are still poor (I blame bendy steel long reach calipers) but at least I can stop in the wet!

[tatanab]

I am slowly modifying my pair of kingpins to alloy rims 20" 406 to replace the 500a original wheels. This involves using drop bolts to lower the brakes to meet the rims.

Beware. The Kingpin already has a low bottom bracket with 500A rims. Using 406 will put the bottom bracket even lower so may not be practical (I changed from 451 to 406 on another machine and immediately went back to 451). My 1973/4 Kingpin is still on 500A, I believe that later ones used 451 rims which are larger than 500A which are ETRTO 400. I admit that 406 rims and tyres are easy to find, 451 are not too difficult , and 500A are not easy to find other than SJS offerings.

Blocks for steel rims - I have upgraded the front brake to an old GB Sychron and fitted long MTB style BBB blocks. How does it work in the rain? I don't know because I've only had it 18 months and its use is as a town pub bike so it hasn't seen rain yet.

[Brucey]

... The Kingpin already has a low bottom bracket with 500A rims. Using 406 will put the bottom bracket even lower so may not be practical (I changed from 451 to 406 on another machine and immediately went back to 451). My 1973/4 Kingpin is still on 500A, I believe that later ones used 451 rims which are larger than 500A which are ETRTO 400...

re the wheel size; I think it depends what size tyres you fit.... BTW 500A is 440mm BSD, not 400.

re brakes; I think some of the brake blocks that work better on steel rims wurk differently on smooth rims vs textured ones. IIRC the leather faced blocks worked OK on smooth rims but didn't make as much difference when used on textured rims.

cheers