Chewing through brake pads

My son's favorite bike, a yard-sale 1973 step-through Raleigh Sport
3-speed, is chewing through brake pads at a rate I've never seen in my
nearly 40 years of cycling. The wheels are not the best I've ever seen,
being chrome jobbies that are not very true (spoke nipples are fairly
rounded -- ideas welcome here), with a few kinks and bumps in them. The
chrome plating is worn off here and there in a speckled fashion, but
it's not like they feel like sandpaper or anything. No visible rust. Yet
he is fairly grinding down the new salmon Kool Stops at an alarming
rate. He's not even a very aggressive rider. I'm scratching my head over
this one.

--

Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
71 Type 2: the Wonderbus
84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
KG6RCR

Mike Elliott wrote:

Yet he is fairly grinding down the new salmon Kool Stops at an alarming
rate. He's not even a very aggressive rider.

The KS salmons are about the longest wearing pads out there. The
Continetal version should work well with the bike you describe:
http://sheldonbrown.com/harris/brake...ml#continental

If you run your finger around the rim braking surface, is there a sharp
or abrasive feel?

Maybe try sanding them smooth. I assume the pads are adjusted to
contact the rim surface squarely.

Art Harris

Mike Rocket J. Squirrel Elliott wrote:

My son's favorite bike, a yard-sale 1973 step-through Raleigh Sport
3-speed, is chewing through brake pads at a rate I've never seen in my
nearly 40 years of cycling. The wheels are not the best I've ever seen,
being chrome jobbies that are not very true (spoke nipples are fairly
rounded -- ideas welcome here), with a few kinks and bumps in them. The
chrome plating is worn off here and there in a speckled fashion, but
it's not like they feel like sandpaper or anything. No visible rust. Yet
he is fairly grinding down the new salmon Kool Stops at an alarming
rate. He's not even a very aggressive rider. I'm scratching my head over
this one.

Oh, please build him some wheels with alu rims. Steel rims are
absolutely hopeless for braking in the rain - I'm talking up to 10 times
the stopping distance.

brake pad treatment 2 in tech archives
teach the little rat to wipe his rims down!

On 2/18/2006 9:54 AM Art Harris wrote:

Mike Elliott wrote:

Yet he is fairly grinding down the new salmon Kool Stops at an alarming
rate. He's not even a very aggressive rider.

The KS salmons are about the longest wearing pads out there. The
Continetal version should work well with the bike you describe:
http://sheldonbrown.com/harris/brake...ml#continental

Yup, that's what we got and that's where we bought them!

If you run your finger around the rim braking surface, is there a sharp
or abrasive feel?

No -- that's the puzzle. I'm bright enough to deduce that a rim that
feels like sandpaper might somehow be responsible for the excitingly
rapid reduction of the pad material. And I adjusted the pads myself . .
.. not that I'm any kind of bicycling mechanical genius, but I've never
had pads on any of my bikes wear like this, or even come close.

Oh well, science and rational thought tell me that the material is being
abraded off by something, and the most likely something is the rim, so
either my fingertips are insensitive to brake-pad-removing roughness, or
there is some magic going on. Which takes me back to the first sentence
of this paragraph.
--

Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
71 Type 2: the Wonderbus
84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
KG6RCR

On 2/18/2006 11:31 AM wrote:

brake pad treatment 2 in tech archives

Uh . . . groups.google.com found three "brake pad treatment 2" posts.
Can any kind soul translate them into standard English? I have no idea
what the writers were going on about; if there is anything specific to
reducing bicycle brake pad wear in those threads I'll be darned if I can
find it.

--

Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
71 Type 2: the Wonderbus
84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
KG6RCR

get cheaper pads. The old style black in metal holder ones are
something like 50c a pair at bikepartsusa.com.

Best option is to rebuild onto aluminum as mentioned, but that's quite
an investment in an old Raleigh.

I'd just avoid going downhill in the rain. :P

wrote:
...
shall we assume you have the brain of a squirrel? is this herditary or
pathological?

See http://www.thebunnysystem.com/?stripID=bunnies122 and
http://www.thebunnysystem.com/?stripID=bunnies123.

--
Tom Sherman
President - G. Daniels Fan Club

On 2/18/2006 3:00 PM Tim McNamara wrote:

"Mike Rocket J. Squirrel Elliott"
m writes:

On 2/18/2006 9:54 AM Art Harris wrote:

Mike Elliott wrote:

If you run your finger around the rim braking surface, is there a
sharp or abrasive feel?
No -- that's the puzzle. I'm bright enough to deduce that a rim that
feels like sandpaper might somehow be responsible for the excitingly
rapid reduction of the pad material. And I adjusted the pads myself
. . . not that I'm any kind of bicycling mechanical genius, but I've
never had pads on any of my bikes wear like this, or even come
close.

Oh well, science and rational thought tell me that the material is
being abraded off by something, and the most likely something is the
rim, so either my fingertips are insensitive to brake-pad-removing
roughness, or there is some magic going on. Which takes me back to
the first sentence of this paragraph.

Perhaps the magic of heat. If these are "ceramic coated" rims, they
are poor conductors of heat. The heat stays at the interface between
pad and rim, because pads don't conduct heat either.

That my be true, but not in this case. As my OP said, this is a
"yard-sale 1973 step-through Raleigh Sport 3-speed," with chrome (thus
steel) rims.

--

Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
71 Type 2: the Wonderbus
84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
KG6RCR

On 2/18/2006 2:17 PM wrote:

yeah-belt dressing-allow to dry completely-more or less becomes the
friction layer-or you may think of the belt dressing this way
thus brake pad wear and rim surface wear undergoes a significant
reduction with brake prep
allow to dry-avoid the sand pit when damp or when newly applied-unless
your in a comp situation: belt dressing plus sand will get the pipe to
SOD!
shall we assume you have the brain of a squirrel? is this herditary or
pathological?


You may ALWAYS assume that I have the brain of a squirrel!
--

Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
71 Type 2: the Wonderbus
84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
KG6RCR