Kool Stop Salmon pads best for all around?

rs said:

I have a set of the black Kool stop pads on my road bike, generic (probably
Techro) brakes but they work fine and the Kool stop pads make a difference.
Kool Stop markets the Salmon colored as for use in wet weather, but Sheldon's
site/Harris Cyclery like the Salmon pads for all use.

All comments welcome on those that have used both the black and salmon pads on
a road bike.

I've used both colors of KS thinlines on my road-ish
touring/commute/main bike with paul neoretros, and installed many, many
of both colors on various setups while working at a shop. IME, its true
that black KS pads are indeed a bit better in dry conditions than
salmon, whereas salmons are way better than everything else in wet, and
wear longer. With a good brake set up, salmons are also generally much
more than good enough in dry, on-road conditions, so they usually make
a lot of sense as "the pad" for bikes that see a fair amount of on-road
use when it's wet.

rs said:

I have a set of the black Kool stop pads on my road bike, generic
(probably Techro) brakes but they work fine and the Kool stop pads
make a difference. Kool Stop markets the Salmon colored as for use in
wet weather, but Sheldon's site/Harris Cyclery like the Salmon pads
for all use.

All comments welcome on those that have used both the black and
salmon pads on a road bike.

Both black and salmon Koolstops worked equally well on my MTB.

--
Phil, Squid-in-Training

Phil said:

rs said:

I have a set of the black Kool stop pads on my road bike, generic
(probably Techro) brakes but they work fine and the Kool stop pads
make a difference. Kool Stop markets the Salmon colored as for use in
wet weather, but Sheldon's site/Harris Cyclery like the Salmon pads
for all use.

All comments welcome on those that have used both the black and
salmon pads on a road bike.

Both black and salmon Koolstops worked equally well on my MTB.

--
Phil, Squid-in-Training

For me thae salmon simply last a lot longer.. and unlike the new
compounds they don't grab grit to wear out your rims .. seriously I
have a set of wheels I built in '93 never had a problem with the rims
getting scored.. two years ago I tried the new compound pads within 200
miles I had serious scratches forming..threw away new pads and
re-installed some salmon pads no new wear..

but then I am the origional "retro-grouch" Uniglide for me thanks..

rs said:

I have a set of the black Kool stop pads on my road bike, generic (probably
Techro) brakes but they work fine and the Kool stop pads make a difference.
Kool Stop markets the Salmon colored as for use in wet weather, but Sheldon's
site/Harris Cyclery like the Salmon pads for all use.

All comments welcome on those that have used both the black and salmon pads on
a road bike.

I don't think it makes a bit of difference for dry use, nor have I
experienced any difference in wet brake performance between various pad
compounds. The only benefit of "salmons" is they don't get grit
embedded, so they save your rims if you do a lot of riding in the rain.

Quoted message said:

Kool Stop markets the Salmon colored as for use in wet weather, but Sheldon's

site/Harris Cyclery like the Salmon pads for all use.

Has anyone tried the silver/grey Continentals? I see them cheap on
eBay.

http://tinyurl.com/bs6hh

Art Harris

Art Harris said:

Quoted message said:

Kool Stop markets the Salmon colored as for use in wet weather, but Sheldon's

site/Harris Cyclery like the Salmon pads for all use.

Has anyone tried the silver/grey Continentals? I see them cheap on
eBay.

http://tinyurl.com/bs6hh

Art Harris

Hi, along those lines, does anyone have an opinion on the newest
Shimano Dura-Ace pads? The ones that come stock with the 7800 brake
calipers.

I know the older 7700 pads are bad news, but what about the new ones?
How do they compare to the KS salmons?

I just bought a 7800 front brake caliper, but haven't had a chance to
try it. If the reports are bad on the new pad, I'll just change it
right away.

Any info will be appreciated.
Thank you,
Jeff

rs said:

I have a set of the black Kool stop pads on my road bike, generic (probably
Techro) brakes but they work fine and the Kool stop pads make a difference.
Kool Stop markets the Salmon colored as for use in wet weather, but Sheldon's
site/Harris Cyclery like the Salmon pads for all use.

All comments welcome on those that have used both the black and salmon pads on
a road bike.

I don't change brake pads when it rains or when it stops. Don't have
any experience with Kool Stop black pads, but put some salmon pads on
4-5 years ago. Unlike Shimano and Pyramid pads, they don't chew up the
rims. Takes a couple of wheel revolutions to squeeze the water off the
rims when they're wet. This "slow stopping" happens frequently when
there's dew on the grass as I start in the morning, but only twice on
the road in that 4-5 years.

Pat

Pat Lamb said:

Quoted message said:

I have a set of the black Kool stop pads on my road bike, generic
(probably Techro) brakes but they work fine and the Kool stop pads
make a difference. Kool Stop markets the Salmon colored as for use
in wet weather, but Sheldon's site/Harris Cyclery like the Salmon
pads for all use. All comments welcome on those that have used
both the black and salmon pads on a road bike.

Quoted message said:

I don't change brake pads when it rains or when it stops. Don't
have any experience with Kool Stop black pads, but put some salmon
pads on 4-5 years ago. Unlike Shimano and Pyramid pads, they don't
chew up the rims. Takes a couple of wheel revolutions to squeeze
the water off the rims when they're wet. This "slow stopping"
happens frequently when there's dew on the grass as I start in the
morning, but only twice on the road in that 4-5 years.

I use Kool-Stop Continental Salmon red and have done so for many years
mainly for two reasons. The brake pads cannot be dislodged by a wheel
change and the material does not build up metal shavings as most
others do. It was Mafac and Campagnolo brake pads that inspired me to
look for a material that would not chew up rims in the rain, where
small grit particles become embedded in the brake pad and subsequently
machine metal from the rim that snowballs into serious rim damage...
and loss of braking.

http://www.koolstop.com/brakes/

(bottom of the page)

I notice that Kool-Stop has modified the description of the
continental pad:

..Completely molded brake pad and holder
..Built in heat sink
..Reasonably priced Kool Stop quality and performance
..Compounds: Gray for normal conditions, Salmon for any riding condition
mother nature can throw your way. Will work for steel or alloy rims
because our Kool-Stop compounds are Rim Friendly ®

The heat sink item tells me that they are still unclear on where
braking heat goes. It does not go into the brake pad. The pad is an
insulator whose "built in heat sink" is like Matthauser's cooling fins
on the back of his pads, imaginary.

As for wet braking, that is mostly myth. The way to assess that is to
ride through snow so that the inner circumference of the front rim is
packed with snow. Then on a clean part of a descending road apply the
brake and notice that braking is nearly absent until the last bit of
snow has melted from the rim. At that time the braking surface can
dry to restore effective braking. While riding in rain, useful
braking comes form partial drying of the rim brake track and depends
on braking heat, as little as there is up till that point. Water is a
good lubricant!

Jobst Brandt

On Wed, 15 Feb 2006 01:37:13 -0600, rs wrote:

The main benefit of the salmon pads, as others have said, is that they do
not trap crud in them which then eats your rims. They don't stop
particularly well in the rain, but for me the ones that do stop well in
the rain do so since they are full of said crud and stop you by shaving
off parts of the rim. Salmon pads also last a long time, much longer than
stock Shimano or Campy.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | A mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems.
_`\(,_ | -- Paul Erdos
(_)/ (_) |

Squid-in-Training said:

rs wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I have a set of the black Kool stop pads on my road bike, generic
(probably Techro) brakes but they work fine and the Kool stop pads make
a difference. Kool Stop markets the Salmon colored as for use in wet
weather, but Sheldon's site/Harris Cyclery like the Salmon pads for all
use.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

All comments welcome on those that have used both the black and salmon
pads on a road bike.

Quoted message said:

Both black and salmon Koolstops worked equally well on my MTB.

I think the Salmon ones work better, especially in the wet, but the black
ones are probably the next best thing. They're light-years ahead of
Shimano pads. I have the black ones on my MTB now.

Since almost no bike shops ever carry the Salmon ones, and claim to have
"never hearda that," I've usually had the black ones. Why bike
shops aren't more proactive in offering the best products is beyond me.
Could this be why they're losing business to mail order?

Matt O.

I've got grey KS Continentals.

I can lock either end at will, get no noticable rim wear and the set of
4 was $8 on Ebay.

They just work and are one less thing I have to think about.

Search to 'brake pad treatment 2' and 'stop on a quarter'
In tech archives

Quoted message said:

The heat sink item tells me that they are still unclear on where
braking heat goes. It does not go into the brake pad. The pad is
an insulator whose "built in heat sink" is like Matthauser's cooling
fins on the back of his pads, imaginary.

Yeah, but dang they looked hip! ;-)

Quoted message said:

For me thae salmon simply last a lot longer.. and unlike the new
compounds they don't grab grit to wear out your rims .. seriously I
have a set of wheels I built in '93 never had a problem with the rims
getting scored.. two years ago I tried the new compound pads within
200 miles I had serious scratches forming..threw away new pads and
re-installed some salmon pads no new wear..

The black Koolstops I used to use had deep scoring through the *pad* where
dirt got embedded and dragged through and out of the soft compound. There
was never any embedded stuff.

--
Phil, Squid-in-Training

Matt O'Toole said:

Since almost no bike shops ever carry the Salmon ones, and claim to have
"never hearda that," I've usually had the black ones. Why bike
shops aren't more proactive in offering the best products is beyond me.
Could this be why they're losing business to mail order?

We stock LOTS of brake pads on a self-service wall. We
notice that we ship salmon to riders who specifically ask
for them by phone or email but almost never sell them over
the counter, that is, given a choice, the overwhelming bulk
of riders choose black pads.

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

Thanks to all, may give Salmon a try next time, everything's working pretty
well right now.

Rick

In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden]
says...

Quoted message said:

I have a set of the black Kool stop pads on my road bike, generic (probably
Techro) brakes but they work fine and the Kool stop pads make a difference.
Kool Stop markets the Salmon colored as for use in wet weather, but Sheldon's
site/Harris Cyclery like the Salmon pads for all use.

All comments welcome on those that have used both the black and salmon pads

on

Quoted message said:

a road bike.

Quoted message said:

I think the Salmon ones work better, especially in the wet, but the black
ones are probably the next best thing. They're light-years ahead of
Shimano pads. I have the black ones on my MTB now.

Since almost no bike shops ever carry the Salmon ones, and claim to have
"never hearda that," I've usually had the black ones. Why bike
shops aren't more proactive in offering the best products is beyond me.
Could this be why they're losing business to mail order?

Matt O.

Matt: There's an alternative explanation. Our shop sells both Salmon and
Black, but for vanity reasons, it seems a lot of our customers prefer the
black. But here's the kicker- as much as I read about the differences
between the black and salmon pads, well, I've gone through quite a few of
each on my road bike (I don't avoid riding in the rain) and... forgive me
for saying this... but... I don't find a difference. Actually, I *think*
it's possible that the black ones wear faster, but I'm not going to be
convinced of anything until I see some actual testing.

Still, for as little as a full complement of KoolStop pads cost to keep in
stock, it does seem silly that a shop doesn't sell both colors. Well, maybe.
Thinking about this some more, I'm remembering that we stopped ordering
salmon Campy-compatible pads because they absolutely, positively would not
sell, ever... even when there was no other pad in stock for a customer. The
campy person just has to have black, at least in our store. Go figure.

--Mike Jacoubowsky
Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReaction.com
Redwood City & Los Altos, CA USA

Mike Jacoubowsky said:

Matt: There's an alternative explanation. Our shop sells both Salmon and
Black, but for vanity reasons, it seems a lot of our customers prefer the
black. But here's the kicker- as much as I read about the differences
between the black and salmon pads, well, I've gone through quite a few of
each on my road bike (I don't avoid riding in the rain) and... forgive me
for saying this... but... I don't find a difference. Actually, I *think*
it's possible that the black ones wear faster, but I'm not going to be
convinced of anything until I see some actual testing.

It's more of an issue of how much the pads wear the rims than how fast
the pads wear. When I ride with a group in the rain I can often hear a
distinct difference in brake noise (you know *that* noise) when we brake
multiple times in quick succession. Other pads seem to be still making
that "grit" noise long after mine stopped.

I had some original Shimano black cantilever pads that were about the
worst. I would take them off and find lots of aluminum shavings embedded
in them, often with a little hard piece of grit in the middle.

I think hard pads like KS salmons tend to squeal more, but I'll take
that over rim eating.

Mike Jacoubowsky said:

Matt: There's an alternative explanation. Our shop sells both Salmon and
Black, but for vanity reasons, it seems a lot of our customers prefer the
black. But here's the kicker- as much as I read about the differences
between the black and salmon pads, well, I've gone through quite a few of
each on my road bike (I don't avoid riding in the rain) and... forgive me
for saying this... but... I don't find a difference. Actually, I *think*
it's possible that the black ones wear faster, but I'm not going to be
convinced of anything until I see some actual testing.

Still, for as little as a full complement of KoolStop pads cost to keep in
stock, it does seem silly that a shop doesn't sell both colors. Well, maybe.
Thinking about this some more, I'm remembering that we stopped ordering
salmon Campy-compatible pads because they absolutely, positively would not
sell, ever... even when there was no other pad in stock for a customer. The
campy person just has to have black, at least in our store. Go figure.

--Mike Jacoubowsky
Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReaction.com
Redwood City & Los Altos, CA USA

Hi Mike,
do you have an opinion on the newest Shimano Dura-Ace pads? The ones
that come stock with the 7800 brake calipers.

I know the older 7700 pads are bad news, but what about the new ones?
How do they compare to the KS salmons?

My guess is that you are one person who would have some experience
with these new pads. So, what do you think?

Thank you,
Jeff