Help! Is it me or is it the brakes? and should I get an upgrade of some sort?

[tulip]

Sounds like the reach is too far (have you had your bike fitted to you) and/or a brake size issue. Do you have small hands? Small brake levers are made. The fitting should indicate if you need smaller levers.

I hope you feel better soon.

[SadieKate]

It could be bad pads; it could be glazed pads; it could be poorly adjusted calipers and/or cables; it could be dirty rims (with road grease). So many possibilities.

Take it to the bike shop and talk to them.

[teawoman]

Aww thanks...you all are so kind and comforting. Why I love posting here. Our first club ride of the year is this weekend. I'm excited, but paranoid. I think the hills are rolling rather than steep where we are going, so it should be ok for a first time out in the Spring.

I just got back and she's in the shop now. The bike is a really good fit, judging from how comfortable I've been riding it (and they are short reach levers)...we are going to try moving the hoods/bar around a bit when I go back, but first they are going to check everything and he said possibly change the pads too.

I do love my LBS: they take lots of time with me (took a loooong time with my fit) and explain stuff and don't condescend.


p.s.

When I was looking on the road bike review site after getting my Giant OCR2 I recall reading something about the brake pads not being great and that people had replaced them and got a much more responsive stop.

This is a bit of a relief to hear: thanks! It's frustrating, tho. I otherwise *love* the bike.

[spokewench]

You should definitely be able to brake with 105 brakes. The gals all have great ideas, but yes, take it to the bike shop. Dirty rims, badly set up brake pads, worn out brake pads, stretched cables, can all cause the bike not to stop well.

Next time, if you are going down hill and need to stop and it doesn't seem to be working well enough, check behind you make sure you can pull into traffic, and move out of the way of the obstacle. Steering out of a problem can help immensely. I've done it many times. Do not fixate on what you think you are going to hit. Look away from it and you probably won't hit it. Same principle as riding a mountain bike, do not look at the rock that you want to miss. If you look at it, you will hit it.

Take your bike in and ask the bike shop to look at it, fix it if need be, and tell you what kinds of things can affect the stopping power of your brakes, i.e. grease on the rims, etc. Hope that helps.

spoke

[SadieKate]

How about an open quick release?

[teawoman]

Next time, if you are going down hill and need to stop and it doesn't seem to be working well enough, check behind you make sure you can pull into traffic, and move out of the way of the obstacle. Steering out of a problem can help immensely. I've done it many times. Do not fixate on what you think you are going to hit. Look away from it and you probably won't hit it. Same principle as riding a mountain bike, do not look at the rock that you want to miss. If you look at it, you will hit it.

Take your bike in and ask the bike shop to look at it, fix it if need be, and tell you what kinds of things can affect the stopping power of your brakes, i.e. grease on the rims, etc. Hope that helps.

spoke

Thanks. It was more a question of which of several obstacles at the bottom of the hill, including trees and people clustered together, could I hit with least injury to everybody? There was hardly any room to maneuver!

[SadieKate]

Pick soft and squishy.

[Starfish]

I don't know if this makes any difference...but I noticed the specs on the website said the shifters were short reach, but the brake calipers were long reach? I wonder if there is any reason why this combo is not made to work well together? Just a question...I don't know what I'm talking about! :-)

[SadieKate]

Short reach brake levers are sized for small hands.

Long reach calipers are freqently used to accomodate larger tires and fenders. It's the drop from the pivot bolt to the rim.

They are compatible.

That said all calipers are not made equally and some are stiffer than others. Dual pivot vs single pivot can make a difference also.

[OakLeaf]

Pick soft and squishy.

For the target, not the brakes

[SadieKate]

One more thing I've never seen us talk about on this forum (or at least don't remember) and that is crappy brake cable housing.

All cable housing is not the same. Campy, Shimano, Avid and Nokon (to name a few) are very stiff and may be lined which means that you lose less efficiency in the system as you compress the cable. A lot of the off-brand stuff is very flimsy and causes mushy braking. Much of the pretty colored housing is this flimsy stuff. Many times a less-than quality shop looking to save a few cents will stock this cheap stuff by the roll and use it when tuning up or building up bikes.

Long story I'll avoid, but a friend borrowed a FS mtb bike from me and, before returning it, took it to a mechanic friend at REI where she was moonlighting at the time. Her intentions were good to have it all tuned and spiffed up before returning it to me. Doofas brain mechanic pulled off my very expensive, stiff and sealed Avid Flak Jackets and replaced with mushy crap housing "because the cables were too short." Well, the mechanic forgot that we had temporarily put a longer stem on the bike just for the friend to test the bike. The brake levers would immediately bottom out with this cheap housing. Cost me a lot of money and effort to re-cable my brakes as Avid Flak Jackets aren't a quick install.

Anyway, one more thing to consider in the efficiency of your brakes.

[spokewench]

Thanks. It was more a question of which of several obstacles at the bottom of the hill, including trees and people clustered together, could I hit with least injury to everybody? There was hardly any room to maneuver!

If it's people yell like you know what, and then run them over!