Road bike, getting more stopping power

[The Ouzo]

After my ride on friday I decided to give the brakes some TLC.

 

Firstly I found out the pads are RavX. So spending some money on better pads will make a big difference.

 

I took off the pads and ran them across some 80 grit sand paper. There was a ridge that had formed on part of the pad that was not touching the rim. So I sanded that away and took off a thin layer from the pads too.

I then re-installed and came to the conclusion that there was no way to stop that ridge from forming again, no matter how I lined up the pad there will always be a little piece that does not touch the rim.

 

so with all 4 pads sanded and lined up as carefully as possible I then re-tensioned the cables slightly.

 

I could not do any toe on the pads without creating some sort of shim to put in between the washer and bolt.

 

But the results were good, sunday I had good braking and even tested locking the rear wheel once or twice.

 

Next step will be to buy some better quality pads.