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

[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.

[Grog]

I agree about sending the bike to the shop etc., but, really:

When it's downhill and moderately fast or faster, I go down in the drops. Braking from the hoods has nowhere near the same stability and power.

This being said, my knowledge of this matter is purely theoretical: I never brake down hills!!!

[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.

[Starfish]

SK, good call. Even new cables every year can help, let alone housing. Thank you for this reminder...this is the kind of thing that makes me consider whether or not to get a new bike, or just dump a bunch of dough into new components and all the spiffy things like this.

[Eden]

My old bike had Tektro calipers on it and my personal opinon of them, is that they are crap.....

When I got my new bike, which admittedly was a big step up, and had DA brakes I was AMAZED at how smooth and secure braking felt. With the old bike it felt like a gamble.... the brakes were stiff and grabby, which made it too easy to skid (which happens if the rear one grabs - and that did happen because it took a lot of initial force to get them to make contact...)

You can try rerunning the cabling, but I'd just replace the calipers if I were you and you are planning to keep the bike for the long term. I've heard that there's even a noticable difference bewteen 105 and Ultegra, and for better braking to go with the Ultegra (I don't know about this personally though, so it's hearsay..)

Now I did put Tektro canti's on my cross bike and those work great, but the cheap@ss calipers that you find on a lot of entry level road bikes I don't like one little bit.

Oh - and RIDE IN YOUR DROPS DOWN HILLLS! and its not just for braking that you should do this. OK, if its a very short little hill I'll let you slide, but really you should do this and get used to it. You are more stable, even if you don't feel like it at first, when you get your center of gravity lower. You can corner better and brake better. I promise you will get used to switching and it won't make you fall down.

[smilingcat]

I had a thread not too long ago about poor braking with my old old shimano 600 brake calipers. It was a single pivot system. I started a thread because I bumped into a back of a car on one occasion and another time I nearly crashed into a side of a pickup as it was turning into a driveway. I could have avoided hitting both of them had my brakes were better. I had replaced the 20 year old pads with new DA/Ultegra brake pads but they couldn't grip enough with the single pivot caliper.

I did replace it with dual pivot SRAM force brake about a week ago. Oh boy!! Huge difference. The dual pivot system wasn't grabby but strong enough that I could lock up my wheels. I feel lot safer

And yes the cable housing makes a difference. I also use stainless steel cable. I only use DA cable housing not some cheap stuff. You get what you pay paid for. DA housing doesn't compress under load and internally they have thick high quality teflon sleeve to allow the cable to slide smoothly inside. You don't need to oil the stainless steel cable when you use with DA housing. If anything, don't lube the cable because it just makes it gummy.

My road bike use all SRAM Force. My TT bike uses all SRAM Force except the brake lever. There, I use Carbon Tektro brake lever (so cheap '$' I couldn't pass it up ). caliper is SRAM Force.

You can mix brake lever and brake caliper. There are all compatible because there is no indexing...

I'm sure the dual pivot 105 is good enough. You may want to have it properly adjusted, new brake pads... Have your LBS go over it.

oh my experience are shimano 600, 105, ultegra, DA, SRAM Force, Campy Centaur. 600 is vintage at the time it was good now it falls short compared to up to date component. 105 was pretty good for serious recreational rider. Same with Centaur. ultegra is really nice. DA if you got $$ and SRAM Force is good but I think you can do better with Ultegra money wise.

smilingcat