replacing brake pads on the road

[MikeF]

One could counter that with, rims need to be built up to withstand the brakes.

From an engineer perspective and a rolling mass perspective, it makes more sense to have disc brakes.

Not necessarily so. What about the extra stiffness in the front forks?

Rolling mass? What am I missing?

I find replacing rim blocks/pads in situ a fiddle. I'd rather take the complete units to fit.

[irc]

That's a weird thing I don't get about modern bikes, why do they not all have disk brakes?

Ok there may be a tiny weight disadvantage,.

More than tiny. Avid Single Digit 7 V brakes - 185g per wheel. Avid BB7s 329g per wheel. So around 290g not including any allowance for a heavier fork to cope with disc brake stresses. Sure 290g is not huge but since V brakes stop the bike perfectly well and are cheaper and simpler to maintain I'll stick with them

[Vorpal]

To replace a v brake pad I need to pull out the retaining pin from the old pad - something which I have so far managed at home with the help of pliers - the pin is usually too firmly wedged to be pulled out by hand.

I am going on a tour where I may need to replace brake pads and will carry replacement pads. I would rather not carry the pliers - they weigh 210g.

What do people use to pull out the pins?

How long will you be gone? Is it enough just to replace them before you go?

[22camels]

3 weeks, Iceland (which I am told wears your brake pads fast), but the question was also regarding possible future longer tours. It looks like there are enough tips in this thread to get me sorted.

[PJ520]

I carry a Leatherman Squirt Weight 54gm. The pliers are just the job for getting V brake pins out.

I second Vorpal. I did a 4700 mile tour without replacing pads

[foxyrider]

Or alternatively switch to standard pads where you replace the whole thing. More fiddly but only needs an Allen key.

+1 for that.

You are of course changing the pads before you set out?

I take a set of pliers in the form of a Leatherman micro - it's less than half the size of my multitool and weighs just 48 grams!

[andrewjoseph]

To replace a v brake pad I need to pull out the retaining pin from the old pad - something which I have so far managed at home with the help of pliers - the pin is usually too firmly wedged to be pulled out by hand.

I am going on a tour where I may need to replace brake pads and will carry replacement pads. I would rather not carry the pliers - they weigh 210g.

What do people use to pull out the pins?

i wouldn't consider touring without some sort of pliers in the kit. i'd rather carry a heavy pliers than walk miles to get a simple fix 'fixed'.

i have a small multi tool with a pliers included in all our bike packs and saddle bags (4 in all). a bigger multi tool in the touring toolkit.

the weight gain versus the potential usefulness is not worth the risk of going without.

[karlt]

Maybe I'm missing something, but on my road bikes I can lock both wheels with caliper brakes. I can decelerate fast enough that I'm at risk of sliding forward and doing meself a mischief on the stem. I can bomb down a 13% at 45mph and scrub 25mph of that off in a few seconds to go around a bend. Unlike when I were a lad, even in the wet they still work (back in the day you had to plan braking a good five minutes in advance in rain).

I'm not quite sure in what way disc brakes would be "better".

[gregoryoftours]

Maybe I'm missing something, but on my road bikes I can lock both wheels with caliper brakes. I can decelerate fast enough that I'm at risk of sliding forward and doing meself a mischief on the stem. I can bomb down a 13% at 45mph and scrub 25mph of that off in a few seconds to go around a bend. Unlike when I were a lad, even in the wet they still work (back in the day you had to plan braking a good five minutes in advance in rain).

I'm not quite sure in what way disc brakes would be "better".

There are some ways in which disk brakes can be 'better', but of course there are always positives and negatives. Decent disks require much less force at the lever to apply strong braking, so if you've not got great hand strength and or weigh a lot it's less tiring on your hands. Good rim brakes with good pads work well in the wet, but still not as well as when it's dry. There is next to no difference wet or dry performance for discs, and of course no rim wear, and new rotors are much cheaper than new rims. Of course there are loads of negatives/potential negatives as well, but if you're looking for these positives in particular then there is a pretty strong argument for disc brakes. But yeah of course what's 'better' for one person isn't for another and it's kind of tiresome when people suggest otherwise.

[Vorpal]

One long, steep off-road descent I've ridden on two different bikes; a hybrid with rim brakes and a MTB with disk brakes. On the hybrid, I had to stop a couple of times to rest my hands because they ached. On the MTB, I was able to do the whole descent without stopping.

[andrewjoseph]

Maybe I'm missing something, but on my road bikes I can lock both wheels with caliper brakes. I can decelerate fast enough that I'm at risk of sliding forward and doing meself a mischief on the stem. I can bomb down a 13% at 45mph and scrub 25mph of that off in a few seconds to go around a bend. Unlike when I were a lad, even in the wet they still work (back in the day you had to plan braking a good five minutes in advance in rain).

I'm not quite sure in what way disc brakes would be "better".

try it and see. i won't ride a bike without disk brakes if i have a choice.

[Brucey]

I think they vary more than you might expect, and that there are good and bad examples of each type of brake, so broad-brush statements about discs being 'better' or having 'more similar performance wet or dry' are in many cases simply not true.

I will use (carefully chosen) examples of each type of brake (rim, disc or drum) for different applications; there is no 'best type'.

FWIW I think that for almost any bike that spends most of its time on the road, a bike with disc brakes will likely be heavier, more expensive, and ride less well than a comparable bike with rim brakes. If there are benefits to disc brakes, they are secondary ones, and there are IMHO as many secondary negatives as there are positives; some may value these differently to others. For utility riding, drum brakes of some kind are superior to either rim or disc brakes.

cheers

[mattsccm]

It's still blocks to me. Pads are flat like the things that go in my disc calipers. Blocks are chunky. Even the skinniest are not pad thin. When some nipper in a shop looks confused and says "oh you mean pads" I get all old and wise and "I was cycling before your dad was born"

[foxyrider]

I think they vary more than you might expect, and that there are good and bad examples of each type of brake, so broad-brush statements about discs being 'better' or having 'more similar performance wet or dry' are in many cases simply not true.

I will use (carefully chosen) examples of each type of brake (rim, disc or drum) for different applications; there is no 'best type'.

FWIW I think that for almost any bike that spends most of its time on the road, a bike with disc brakes will likely be heavier, more expensive, and ride less well than a comparable bike with rim brakes. If there are benefits to disc brakes, they are secondary ones, and there are IMHO as many secondary negatives as there are positives; some may value these differently to others. For utility riding, drum brakes of some kind are superior to either rim or disc brakes.

cheers

hear, hear!

I get really fed up of hearing the 'discs are best' brigade harping on about superior this and that, my own observations and experience certainly don't echo all the hype.