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Brake blocks catching chips of aluminium

Tim Dowson2018-08-28 22:02:32

On a pair of new rims, the front brake blocks (on v brakes) keep picking up chips of aluminium and then scraping whenever I use them. I've never had wheels /brakes where this happened more than occasionally before but with these it seems to be every week. Aside from being unpleasant it's time-consuming cleaning it all so often, and it's damaging both the rims and the blocks. Does anyone have any idea why this might be happening?

2018-08-30 08:22:45

Most times I have had this problem the chips are in fact small stones with a coating of aluminium gouged our of the rim braking surface.

The worst blocks I have had for rim damage were Shimano that came with XT V brakes. They ripped up the rim surface (Velocity Deep Vs) and left balls of alloy on the rim itself.

KoolStop Salmon compound is good at not retaining stone fragments. Swiss Stop Black RX may be slightly better in this respect and I find they are quieter. Both are expensive but they are worth it to reduce rim wear.

Martyn

2019-04-12 12:10:18

I seem to recall that my Shimano LX V-brakes from 1998 did have this tendancy too. I've not noticed it with other makes of brake pad since. I'd also suggest trying other makes of pad. The suggestions above are good. I also found Avid ones good.

Tim Dowson2019-04-12 19:15:38

Thanks for this suggestion - it's happened no more since fitting Koolstop salmon. So stick to pricy blocks and save time and rims. Maybe I should try Swiss stop next time though.