Goodbye SwissStop Blue Brake Pads

[trailgumby]

After using SwissStop blue pads for the last 5-6 years, based on recommendations here, and not being overwhelmed by the braking performance of my Ultegra 6700 brakes, I bit the bullet and swapped them out for some Shimano BR9000 R55C4 pads a little while back.

Today was the first time I have had an opportunity to try them out in anger, riding Akuna Bay. It has some reasonable descents.

While they were a little squealy, possibly due to the well-used rims, they definitely bite better.

[foo on patrol]

That's interesting but I've only ever used the Shimano pads on both ally and carbon rims.

Foo

[RonK]

Aren't Swiss Stop blue an extra hard compound meant for ceramic coated braking surfaces? It wouldn't be surprising if they lacked bite on plain alloy rims.

[rkelsen]

Aren't Swiss Stop blue an extra hard compound meant for ceramic coated braking surfaces?

No, they're for alloy rims.

I like them. They're a lot better than stock pads IMO.

Clearly subjective...

[10speedsemiracer]

Aren't Swiss Stop blue an extra hard compound meant for ceramic coated braking surfaces? It wouldn't be surprising if they lacked bite on plain alloy rims.

SwissStop Blue are for alloys, Yellow and Black Prince are for Carbon.

I haven't found many aftermarket pads to be any good of late, except for some oddball stuff like the KoolStop Continental.

[baabaa]

Today was the first time I have had an opportunity to try them out in anger, riding Akuna Bay. It has some reasonable descents.

Akuna is steep, and then gets steeper.
Was often my mid commute ponder before discs really became a thing, why didn't brake pads come in weight groups and different "rubber" pad compounds, racer weights for the flyweight riders then say normal for lower than 80 kgs for bike and rider and then chunky ones for 85 and above.
Same thing for all modern brakes, ( a weight indicator for the brake & pads ) the demands are way different and most light riders don't need the power and can ride lower psi in a tyre and brake well, while the plus 90 / heavy riders need the power and cant really go low psi without loosing stopping power because of the bulk and the physics of pulling up has on tyre side walls, flex and then grip before a skid. - Same with gravel bikes really, if you just play about with psi why do you need massive power on gravel when all it does is send you into a skid?

Anyway for an option give aztecs a go, cheap and seem to work well enough in the dry with *my setup of fsa calipers on open pro rims ( *steel sportive bike and 80ks)

[RonK]

Aren't Swiss Stop blue an extra hard compound meant for ceramic coated braking surfaces? It wouldn't be surprising if they lacked bite on plain alloy rims.

SwissStop Blue are for alloys, Yellow and Black Prince are for Carbon.

I haven't found many aftermarket pads to be any good of late, except for some oddball stuff like the KoolStop Continental.

I assume you are referring to BXP pads (which are blue).
The SwissStop page does not show a Blue anymore, not surprising since it's likely ceramic/CSS coasted rims are no longer available. Definitely Rigida (now called Ryde) no longer make them, no doubt due to the proliferation of disc brakes.
Looking back over my older posts I definitely used SwissStop Blue for the Rigida Andra CSS rims I had on my touring bike at the time. They were specifically made for ceramic/CSS and were the only pads that would last on that braking surface.

[AndrewCowley]

The SwissStop blue pads are good in the wet. In the wet the Shimano pads are grit and debris magnets, and therefore if you are not OCD about picking all the crap out, they are rim killers. The SwissStop pads are harder and hence stuff doesn’t get stuck in them as easy.

[g-boaf]

The SwissStop blue pads are good in the wet. In the wet the Shimano pads are grit and debris magnets, and therefore if you are not OCD about picking all the crap out, they are rim killers. The SwissStop pads are harder and hence stuff doesn’t get stuck in them as easy.

They are the ones I used and in the wet I found a few times in extremely heavy rain I ended up with hardly any braking ability at all.

Obviously something managed to get on the braking surface of the wheel/or the pads at the time. But mostly they were okay. And in normal conditions the braking power was very good.

Now I'm on a bike with disc brakes I don't have those problems when it rains.

[AndrewCowley]

They are the ones I used and in the wet I found a few times in extremely heavy rain I ended up with hardly any braking ability at all.

That pretty much sums up any rim braked bike in the wet, regardless of what pads you are using.

[Thoglette]

That pretty much sums up any rim braked bike in the wet, regardless of what pads you are using.

If your wheels (like mine ) are covered in grey road grime that’s true for the first two seconds - if I’ve forgotten to pre-brake.

After that, a lack of braking indicates a lousy brake setup and/or crap pads And I’ve had bikes like that

[g-boaf]

That pretty much sums up any rim braked bike in the wet, regardless of what pads you are using.

If your wheels (like mine ) are covered in grey road grime that’s true for the first two seconds - if I’ve forgotten to pre-brake.

After that, a lack of braking indicates a lousy brake setup and/or crap pads And I’ve had bikes like that

On mine it was just crap on the braking surface or the pads (or both) in an extremely heavy downpour. Otherwise in the dry they were fine and no problems slowing down repeatedly from 75km/h to 30km/h.

The SRAM Red rim brakes that were part of the old 11 speed E-tap kit were great, nice feel on the levers and very precise. I've had Dura Ace 9000 and also tried whatever the Ultegra 8000 level rim brakes were and the SRAM were the nicest of the lot. I haven't tried the Shimano latest though. Probably a rarity now to even find a top level bike with rim brakes these days.

I'd happily test one if it turned up here. We are spoiled with the latest disc brake bikes, some of these are great bikes. The lines are blurred now, the aero bike is now not so heavy anymore and some of them are also comfortable bikes for long distance riding.