B'Twin Triban 500 - Braking Improvements

I changed the shifters on my 500se to Claris, and replaced B'twin pads with Shimano, and it did improve the braking and shifting. However I have Ultegra on my other bike and there is a world of difference in braking, so decent calipers really are a must if you want to make a significant improvement.

I changed the shifters on my 500se to Claris, and replaced B'twin pads with Shimano, and it did improve the braking and shifting. However I have Ultegra on my other bike and there is a world of difference in braking, so decent calipers really are a must if you want to make a significant improvement.

My tip is: replace the all-in-one pads that usually come with cheap brakes with Ultegra brake shoes and pads. Just the shoes, usually no need to replace the caliper unless its really poor. This:

http://www.jensonusa.com/Shimano-Ultegra-BR6700-Brake-Shoe-Set?cu=GBP

You'll find them elsewhere too. Made a 'night and day' improvement to the last bike I did that to, and old Raleigh that did. not. stop. It certainly stopped afterwards!

I've got a Triban 500SE with the Microshift 3x8 groupset.  It's my first road bike, but I find the brakes adequate.

I wasn't confident in the drops initially, and found braking on the hoods difficult.   I rotated the bars up a few degrees, which allowed me to grab more of the brake lever from the hoods.  This helped a lot.

Once I was more used to the drops, I rotated the bars back and now have no problems.

I only replaced the brake pads (to Shimano Ultegra) when they were worn.

Most likely not feeling in control is a technique issue. These are the first two things to check.

• Ensure she understands that the front brake is the main brake and how to brace herself against the bars when braking hard. The rear brake is really only important when there is gravel/ice/etc on the road or a front blow-out or brake failure (and perhaps going down very steep hills). See this exellent GCN video or Sheldon Brown on the subject and this very interesting experiment.

• If the bike has drop bars, make sure she understands how to use them and that you can get most braking power from the hooks/drops. Check this out. (Although what most people call drops is called "hooks" here.) Many people new to drop bars use "the tops" far too much when they are actually the hardest hand position to control the bike from, at least until you get used to them. Using the tops going downhill is a great way to feel out of control!

If the brakes aren't working that well (try riding it and see if anything is wrong), I suggest/second the following:

• Fit new pads - get cartridge ones, they are often much better. Ensure they are adjusted correctly.
• Fit new brake cables if the force to pull the brake lever is much higher than the force it pushes back with when released. If the bike's over 6 months old and/or been exposed to significant moisture, replace them anyway
• Failing all the above, fit better brake calipers. If you shop around you can get them quite cheap, but if you need the local bike shop to fit them, just go there.

We had a small road bike in the family that had the most inefficient brakes I had ever used (until we also got a BMX...). You could see the caliper flexing when the brake was applied. I replaced it with a Tiagra caliper and it was so much better. Bike was being used by a ham fisted young un who managed to put himself over the handlebars with his front brake on his mountain bike so grip strength was not the issue.

In my experience which comes mainly from conversations with female riders a lot of their problem comes from the fact that the shifters still only come in one standard size even in this day and age. Quite a few people have mentioned the fact that they don't feel they can quite wrap their fingers around the brake lever enough to get a good strong squeeze on them in the first place which having hands slightly smaller than most guys of my height I can easily imagine that feeling. If you haven't got your fingers wrapped round far enough to get a good strong positive squeeze your not gonna feel safe to start with.

Surely with the overall growth in cycling and thus women's and youngsters cycling as part of that there must be a market for a slightly reduced sized shifter for each groupset to be spec'ed on new bikes. Being as it would be the only part of the groupset that would need to be offered by the manufacturer in a different size is hard to imagine it wouldn't be economical to make and market also.

You need to clarify what she means by '"wasn't in control".

Is that she couldn't retard the speed, is that handlebar wobble, is that too many people close to her, scared by the outright speed/worried she'll crash, worried about a bend/street furniture on approach?

If she's inexperienced it could be more to do with knowing how to position herself/handle the bike and how much braking to do and when if she's never come down at speed on a fast descent. Fear factor and/or not knowing what to do and when, failing to expect X situation nor understanding what speed is safe for you and those around you (so you don't run into someone) would be indications of that out of control you describe. Much of this comes from experience and is why so many on varying events get into a spot of bother because they simply don't have it or they get carried away with the ride seeing others going fast/taking risks, follow suit and ends in a spill/knocking confidence because it felt out of control.

As for changing groupset, this won't change anything IMHO.

First thing you could try re the brakes is to get her to ride fairly fast on a quiet/flat back road and tell her to brake really hard but with more emphasis on really pulling on the rear, If she can lock the back wheel up under heavy braking on the flat then it certainly isn't the brakes that are the issue.

Upgrading pads can never hurt but as mentioned above cleaning the rims and checking the existing pads beforehand no matter what type of riding you do is good practice.

I had 10 speed microshift levers and Shimano Ultegra calipers for a (short) while.  The levers were really very (very) poor, braking from the drops was a very long reach (for a guy with medium size hands) and braking on the brake hoods was almost not an option.  You can pick up 8 speed triple shimano shifters on ebay (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Shimano-ST-2300-3-x-8-Speed-STI-Gear-and-Brake...) for about £70 which i would suggest thinking about.  As others say, brake shoe and block upgrades (shimano original ones are now very good) will also help a lot.  Microshift (in my opinion) are not mainstream for a good reason, i tried them and tried hard to like them but they were very soon sold on ebay.

"plastic brake handles"??

Are you sure? Not clear what you mean by handles - presumably levers, but I'd be surprised if these were actually plastic...

As others have said, better pads can be a worthwhile upgrade. Ensuring the existing ones haven't gotten a 'glazed' surface can be helpful too - take a bit of sandpaper or a file to them. And clean the rims with some white spirit or a brillo pad if they've glazed too.

You didn't say if it was the flat or drop bar 500. If the latter, braking while in the drops (not on the tops) usually gives much more leverage on long and/or steep descents.

If all else fails, a pair of Shimano 105 dual pivot brakes (probably available online for about £50) will provide loads of stopping power.

I had the earlier iteration of that bike with microshift levers and ended up fitting crosstops so I could use the tops as a braking position on descents. I just didn't feel secure on the bike descending on the drops (relatively small hands for a bloke) as there was a lot of travel and slack before getting a decent bite. Also the pivot position on those levers meant that two-finger braking from the hoods needed a lot of finger strength. I felt much more secure with my hands on the top of the bars using the crosstops to slow down. They take a bit of feel away but its a small price to pay for reliable braking IMO.  Installation is easy enough - undo cable from caliper, wind back a few turns of bar tape (from stem end), cut brake outer where the cable goes through the crosstop, and reconnect cables. Crosstops come with barrel adjusters so you can play with lever travel etc.

Pads will probably help too, or you could upgrade the calipers for around £30 for used 105s

Replace the brake pads and service the brakes for a start.  

Some decent named brand pads will be a vast improvement, e.g. shimano ultegra or similar will work and are pretty cheap.  

Lube the cables, clean and lube the calipers, get the toe and setback from the rim and the hand reach lined up corect.  Better quality cables/outers would be the next step but probably not required.  

Upgrade to sora is not worth it with a bike like this when a decathlon bike with the same frame and a sora groupset is about £50 more than the value of the bike.  

So much to say, most of which I've written before.

Starting with the obvious, there's three main reasons why she may not feel safe:

1. Bike setup - components, etc. Decent brake pads, tyres, etc. I'll post a link to a piece later that I wrote about this.

2. Bike setup - geometry. Does the bike really fit her? Remember that short stems plus narrower bars commonly used with a women's bikes means twitchy handling. I see this all the time with women, and men not understanding that it's not a practical method to make a too-big bike fit without consequences. I wouldn't use a stem under 100mm. Distrust in your handling may also be exacerbated at speed. I know I never really pushed a couple of my bikes as I didn't feel safe. I like speed and descending, so I don't ride those bikes any more!

3.Technique. Watch her descending from behind and check she does the basics correctly.  Foot positioning, looking around corners, weight distribution, line, etc. If not, sit her down with a few GCN videos, or preferably, get her signed up to a training course.

Your question seems to be focussed on 1, but don't forget about the other two. 

Stock brake pads on any bike tend to be fairly (to 'very') poor, including Shimano. You could upgrade the pads to something better like Koolstop salmons or even Swissstop Green pads (greens are very expensive but VERY good). Either would make a huge difference.