Kool-Stop "Cross Pad"...a "review"

We've all heard the sound, that horrible banshee shrill that comes from a nicely dialed in set of cantilever brakes.  Yes, i said "nicely dialed", cuz no matter what, they always start off super sweet, then after the 1st big race and the 1st big cleaning that sound comes out of no where.

Then there's the "chatter", or "shudder", from those stupid things.  You know, you've taken it to your mechanic 12 times, or you've tried to adjust it on your own 50, and no matter what you've tried, whether its pads or toeing or different brakes...etc...theres still that ever resounding vibration that drives you crazy going into the 1st corner of the next cross race,  you loose focus and BAM, wash out in front of 100 of your newest, closest friends.  

At this point I'm going to pause for a little Disclaimer:  There are always LOTS of variables that go into dialing in canti brakes for a cross bike.  Theres the distance from the hanger to the yoke, widely spaced or narrower spaced brake arms, long pads, short pads, thick pads, thin pads, threaded(adj angle pads), solid post pads(usually can adj the toe on the brake...or not) so on and so forth.  The Only, knock on wood and to date, set up from the factor I've seen that works GREAT with any type of brake and shoe, came on a Stevens frame.  They created a bolt on hanger that attaches to the fork, thus lowering the distance between the hanger and yoke.  Now TRP has come up with their own retrofit version of this, but you have to have a fork that allows for this thing to be bolted on.  Braking with that set up was awesome, and felt as safe and secure as any road caliper does.  So...the following "solution" is one I came across based on my own "philosophy" of how things work.  There are plenty of other ways to do it, and the aim is the same in the end, NO NOISE/CHATTER, so continue to read on with an open mind...and heart.

my new best friend...the pad, not the dude

I run Paul's canti brakes and on one i had the stock "Slim Line" pad, which was long and narrow, on the front, on the rear I ran an Avid Std Mtb threaded post pad.  With the Paul's brakes they come "front and rear", which I switched up, putting the narrower armed rear brake arms in the front and wider spaced ones in the rear.  The reason for this is since the front brake is the one that mostly gets all the bad press with noise and chatter, by putting the "shorter pull" of the 2 up front, you decrease cable length across the yoke which in turn should reduce the amount of flex the cable can have which in turn again can create all the problems of chatter and noise.  

No matter how much I toed the pads, or cleaned them, I either had some noise come from them both wet and dry, and when they got the slightest bit of moisture on them, the shudder was damn near unbearable.  I bought these Kool-Stop Cross Pads at my old shop before I left after looking at lots of pads out there.  I knew what I didn't want, something long and without grooves, or channels, since its like taking a blade of grass in between your hands and blowing hard on it, similar to braking.  You get lots of loud noise from the harmonics produced.  So, I knew i wanted something shorter, i also knew i wanted something with replaceable pads.  Shorter pads mostly cause as a mechanic i HATE working on my own stuff and going through the motions of setting up new shoes every time wasn't fun and took too damn long.

sssshhhh...do you hear that?  Me either!

 I saw these guys in a couple places and thought id give the a whirl.  They matched all my criteria, shorter, replaceable pads and channeled.  They also have a compound that is broken up into, hard-soft-hard, which makes sense in my head due to the fact that it doesn't grab "evenly" at once, meaning that the forces and harmonics wouldn't have a chance to settle in and create the "noise".

Last week Id finally worn thru my old pads to the point where any normal person would've changed them out a while ago.  Like I said, being a mechanic and working on everyone elses' stuff, I rarely wanted to work on mine, and I've got enough tricks up my sleeve to limp stuff along for quite a while.

just so you know you got the right thing, here's the pertinent info

 The pads went on and adjusted just fine in the Paul's brake arms.  Side note, just to let you know what I'm running wheel wise, Campy Eurus Alloy clinchers.  I went out on a ride the other day, the inaugural ride with these new pads.  The first time I went to stop, I was waiting to be let down...again...as most stuff out there doesn't impress me much anymore.  That sounds like a completely elitist statement, and apologies if it does, but Ive seen enough "disco ball" "whiz bang" stuff out there, and then watch it fail after a few rides, that my skepticism is a bit deeper than most.

Thus I digress...

They were AWESOME!  No chatter, no noise, positive and progressive stopping power, and the beauty of it was, it lasted the entire 3 hour ride!  I like the feeling of that "clank" most people want in a brake feel, when the pads are completely in line with the rim...ie...no toe.  This definitely opens one up to the noise and chatter, but there was none of it!  I was so happy, and the whole ride kept saying how much "I love these damn pads!".

they fit just right on my Paul's

Now i know they're not for everyone, and they re not for every brake, and there's LOTS of other options out there.  I'm simply saying, if you've tried almost everything and you are getting close to throwing your bike down a flight of stairs because it wont shut the hell up, go order a set of these and give them a whirl.  Ive put the packaging and the bar code on the back so when you do order them, you know you're getting the same thing.  Both QBP and JB, national distributors, stock these(click HERE to go to the JB page to see stock at their warehouses).  If they don't work for you, then id love to know why, as I truly believe you learn more from "mistakes" than you do from "successes".

On that note, thanks for listening/reading.  Boots out...