Any safe way to conserve brake pads

[lordofthemark]

@ShawnoftheDread 101738 wrote:

They are v-brakes rather than calipers, but yes they are rim brakes. Two pair of brake shoes would run $12-$20, so $30 installed doesn’t seem bad if you really don’t want to learn how to do this yourself. It is pretty easy though.

$30 plus $10 for labor, but they threw in a free bell to replace my broken one, which runs about $10 last time I looked.

[jabberwocky]

30 bucks is pretty reasonable, but as others have said its a very simple job to do on your own. I prefer the kool stop salmon pads for my road bikes. The inserts for road caliper brakes are usually under 10 bucks a pair and it takes all of 5 minutes to swap them out, and that includes cleaning the rim off while I’m at it. I keep half a dozen pairs of pads in the parts drawer.

[scoot]

You can also reduce brake usage by maximizing air resistance on downhills. This means standing on the pedals to increase the total area you present to the wind. Caveat: Use with caution: it’s much harder to safely panic-brake and stop from a standing position while flying down a hill. Throw your weight down and back first!

Brake wear is a concern of mine when seeking out good routes for hill workouts. I prefer a ride that safely allows for unbraked descents without requiring stops at the bottom. Military Road in north Arlington is the best local example I can think of.

[ronwalf]

@peterw_diy 101686 wrote:

Try to keep your pads & rims clean. Normal braking friction is hard enough on pads without adding abrasive materials to the mix.

I wore through half a rim and several sets of pads before learning this. I started cleaning my rims every time I oil the chain (with different rags, of course). That tends to be every 200 miles or after a ride in the rain.

[Rod Smith]

V brake pads are really thin. They’re almost done when they’re brand new!

Use the rear brake. Until the rear tire starts to skid, you’re getting stopping power from the rear brake. Yes, Sheldon is correct, in a panic stop, when your weight is being throw forward due to rapid deceleration, the rear brake is essentially useless, but in most braking situations the rear brake will help you slow down and using it will reduce wear on the front brake pads and front rim. Also moving your body rearward off the back of the saddle in a panic stop will allow you to get more stopping power from your rear brake which will help bring the bike to a stop sooner. Also hitch a huge trailer to your bike to prevent endos.

[dkel]

I’m currently practicing “rear brake? Meh.” This is in part habit, but lately it’s in rehearsal for the completion of my FG build, which is getting ever nearer. (And I ain’t putting a rear brake on that.) (Unless I totally chicken out.)

[peterw_diy]

W.R.T. cargo bikes while Sheldon (RIP) does advocate using both for “long” bikes, he misses one important factor. Making heavy use of the front brake with cargo bikes (and I assume bikes like Rod’s with heavy trailer loads) puts a significant amount of stress on the fork. Yuba apparently had problems with its Mundo fork a couple years ago in this regard. Folks were mounting disk brakes and IIRC a few folks had their forks buckle. No serious injuries that I recall. Yuba’s recommended disk setup is opposite the typical MTB setup — 180mm rotors on the rear and smaller 160mm rotors up front.

[TwoWheelsDC]

@dkel 101756 wrote:

I’m currently practicing “rear brake? Meh.” This is in part habit, but lately it’s in rehearsal for the completion of my FG build, which is getting ever nearer. (And I ain’t putting a rear brake on that.) (Unless I totally chicken out.)

Unless you do the very common fixed gear front-brake switcheroo and move the brake to the right side. I find myself having to re-learn the left/front right/rear layout every time I get on one of my geared bikes…but I’m too lazy to re-cable my geared bikes to move to a right/front left/rear layout.

[vvill]

@TwoWheelsDC 101780 wrote:

Unless you do the very common fixed gear front-brake switcheroo and move the brake to the right side. I find myself having to re-learn the left/front right/rear layout every time I get on one of my geared bikes…but I’m too lazy to re-cable my geared bikes to move to a right/front left/rear layout.

Heh, my bikes are mixed between front on right and back on left. My fixed gear and road bike are front on left, the others are front on right.

It’s easier to get used to than having wipers on the left and indicators on the right of a steering wheel.

[ShawnoftheDread]

@dkel 101756 wrote:

I’m currently practicing “rear brake? Meh.” This is in part habit, but lately it’s in rehearsal for the completion of my FG build, which is getting ever nearer. (And I ain’t putting a rear brake on that.) (Unless I totally chicken out.)

What are you doing about hoods if you don’t want a rear brake? Dummy hood? Unconnected right lever?

[ShawnoftheDread]

@vvill 101785 wrote:

Heh, my bikes are mixed between front on right and back on left. My fixed gear and road bike are front on left, the others are front on right.

It’s easier to get used to than having wipers on the left and indicators on the right of a steering wheel.

Who uses turn indicators in a car? You have to move your fingers like two inches to do that.

[jabberwocky]

@ShawnoftheDread 101833 wrote:

What are you doing about hoods if you don’t want a rear brake? Dummy hood? Unconnected right lever?

Everyone I’ve seen does the unconnected right lever. Or you could ape Dirt and hook a rear facing squirtgun to the right lever.

[dkel]

@ShawnoftheDread 101833 wrote:

What are you doing about hoods if you don’t want a rear brake? Dummy hood? Unconnected right lever?

Unconnected right lever. That way if I do wimp out, I’ll be able to put a rear brake in. The levers should be in midweek, so you’ll see them on my FG thread.

@TwoWheelsDC 101780 wrote:

Unless you do the very common fixed gear front-brake switcheroo and move the brake to the right side.

I was at Bikenetic yesterday talking about what calipers might work with my old Schwinn, and they handed me a caliper off their work bench and said I could have it for nothing. Nice folks, those. Anyway, it’s a BMX caliper, so the cable fixes to the opposite side from road calipers. That would make it easy to switch the front brake to the right lever; the question is: will it be trouble to route the cable from the left as usual, or will it put too sharp a bend in the cable to get it attached to the left side of the caliper? (This should probably go in my FG thread, but we’re already talking about it here, so whatever.)

[TwoWheelsDC]

@ShawnoftheDread 101833 wrote:

What are you doing about hoods if you don’t want a rear brake? Dummy hood? Unconnected right lever?

Unconnected lever. I have a set of Cane Creek levers that are spring-loaded, so the the disconnected lever stays put. The SRAM levers that I got for my Cinelli, however, are not (to my dismay) spring-loaded, so the disconnected lever does flop around. Eventually I’ll fix it when I re-tape my bars, but it really doesn’t bother me that much.

[TwoWheelsDC]

@dkel 101837 wrote:

I was at Bikenetic yesterday talking about what calipers might work with my old Schwinn, and they handed me a caliper off their work bench and said I could have it for nothing. Nice folks, those. Anyway, it’s a BMX caliper, so the cable fixes to the opposite side from road calipers. That would make it easy to switch the front brake to the right lever; the question is: will it be trouble to route the cable from the left as usual, or will it put too sharp a bend in the cable to get it attached to the left side of the caliper? (This should probably go in my FG thread, but we’re already talking about it here, so whatever.)

I don’t think it would create so dramatic a bend that it would cause you problems…unless I’m misunderstanding you, my fixed gear bikes are set up basically the same way you describe, only mirrored, (so brake lever on the right, with a caliper with the cable pull also on the right). I could’ve used more cable on mine (I seem to remember having a “close enough” length of housing and didn’t want to buy more), but as you can see from the photo, the bend is minimal and it certainly doesn’t cause any problems in daily use.

[Author]

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