Fuji Silhouette:looking for the good, the bad, and the ugly (or pretty!!)

[Eden]

Obviously I need to try dura ace brakes. How much difference do you think the pad makes and as for stiffness, is that something that just grease/oil takes care of? I haven't noticed any difference between ultegra, 105, tiagra, campy, and forte brakes... I'm sure there's some weight differences of course.

None of those are particularly cheap brakes - the brakes I had issue with were Tektro - and the generic ones that bike mfg's use to cut costs. It wasn't pads or adjustment, they weren't made very well. I don't think it would make a huge difference to go from Ultegra to DA , again most of what you get when you get into the upper levels of components is weight savings- don't know about Tiagra or the others as I haven not used them.

It looks like the Silhouette comes with Cane Creek brakes - which as far as I know have a pretty good reputation -though I don't know anything about that model. They still use Tektro on their "sport" models.