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Best brake pads for carbon wheels
Just wondering what brakes pads everyone is using for their carbon wheels, recently purchased a set of Prime RR-50 V3 wheels and they came supplied with a set of Prime brake pads, unfortunately they don't fit in R7000 105 brakes! They're slightly too thick so don't fully insert so am looking at an alternative, have see the Swisstop Flash Pro and Evo and the only difference I can see is the Evos are 0.75 mm thinner. My wheels 27.5 external so was wondering which ones to order, as they are best part of 40quid I was wondering if all else being equal if I could fit the Pro's? Also any other recommendations for pads would be good.
Cheers
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17 comments
Campag Red
All this cheers me up immensely, from my smug heights of someone with a £650 gravel bike (OK, so the wheels were crap, and the replacement rear is failing now, but I'm going to get - probably- some Hunt alloys) with the superb TRP Spyre mechanical disc brakes so I can just hammer downhill in the rain chasing a Stagecoach bandit knowing that I can stop when he brakes. Nondescript cheap brake pads last a year and are dead easy to replace. Joy!
I had good experiences with Campy carbon pads. The red ones. They stopped well and were quiet. Also the Yellow Swiss stop ones.
Both brands wore quickly but not a problem to replace.
Used on roval clx, corima and Bora wto wheels
While not a Campy fan, their rim brakes always seemed to have far better performance than Shimano. I know my long drop non-series brakes on my old winter bike were completely useless, whereas I have cycling mates who have ended up over the handlebars with misjudged stops on Campy. Even Ultegra didn't seem to work anywhere near as effectively. Not down to the brake material, just better design.
I found the Prime pads to be a bit underwhelming in the dry and shocking in the wet. Swissstop yellows are good in the dry and OK in the wet (once you have had a full revolution under braking). The Black Princes I found excellent in the dry and good in the wet (again once you have had that full revolution under braking).
I was already on Swissstop on my alloy rims as a brake block set, SS pads into SS shoes so just swapped the pads out. You only buy the shoes once so although expensive, it's a one off purchace.
Will order some of the Black Prince pads, did you get the Pros or Evo?
Pro, a bit spendy me.
If you have carbon brake tracks then don't use the standard Swissstop Flash Pro or the Evos as they are for Alu, IIRC. The choice from that range is the yellow or black prince. I haven't used the yellow but the black prince are very good...albeit they are expensive and wear out very quickly.
hi mate, I meant the Black Prince Flash Pro and Evo, wasn't which ones to get out of the 2 as the only differnence I can see is the thickness and at £40 a set that extra 0.75mm the Pro's have seem a better choice as long as they will fit!
I had the exact same problem, just trimmed the prime blocks slightly and they fitted in nicely.
No issues since.
ok mate, will give that a try with the stanley knife! What do you think of the Prime pads?
Not too bad, dry performance is almost comparable to my old aluminium rims but wet performance can be a bit scary!
Thankfully the bike with the RR-50s doesn't go out much in the wet so it's not an issue too often.
Have read mixed reviews on the Prime pads so will just bite the bullet and get the Swisstop Evo, don't have a winter bike but have got a set of AR24 for winter riding.
Same here.... had a go at them with a Stanley knife and they slid in in the end. Just make sure you're fitting each one the right way round as they are directional, if it matters...
I ended up taking the pad holder off the calliper, which made life a bit easier.
The advantage of the Prime pads is that they are thin, ie. will give a couple of extra MM clearance if you are fitting wide wheels and there is not much calliper clearance.
I've been perfectly happy with them, and they've caused very little wear to my RR50s. It's a 'best' bike so I rarely use in rain but when I have they've been fine.
I've ordered the Swisstop Black Prince Evos, they're .75mm thinner than the normal pads so will hopefully give me some extra clearance, will save the Prime pads for spares for now.
When you say sightly too thick, do you mean width or depth? If a brake block doesn't fit, a bit of alcohol can be used to lubricate the channel to slide it in - I've had blocks which seem too tight when dry but will fit when wetted with alcohol which of course then evaporates.
Did Prime suggest what model of brakes the pads were intended for? Were they, for example, Campag or SRAM? Off hand I can't remember the difference in fit, but there was a difference and were not interchangeable.
At £40, I might be tempted to sand them down if they really are the wrong fit. With care, shouldn't be a problem.
the Prime pads should fit Shimano, but I have seen several reviews where people have had the same issue so thought I might try the Swisstop pads instaed. The chanel is slightly too wide so only insert about 3/4 of th way in, i'll try trimming them down slightly.