Friday, May 28, 2010

Get the #$@%! Outta My Way!

If you've been following along at home, you know that I've had my problems sharing the bike paths around here with other bikers, joggers, people just walking around. You can read about some of it here.
So I took the plunge and ordered me some Banshee Brakes.
If you've never heard of Banshee Brakes, you can read about them here.
According to the manufacturers, the noise from the brakes are supposed to alert other path users to your presence.
Here's what one of the pads looks like:



Apparently, the come already broken in or something cause you can see the uneven wear on them. I took out the old hex wrench and using the easy to follow instructions, mounted them up. Here's what they sound like:



Well to be honest, although they do sound like a truckload of banshees on meth, I wasn't that impressed. I mean they are loud and all that, but will they really alert others to my presence? I readjusted the pads just to see if that made any difference. I also used some sandpaper to remove any foreign material that might be embedded in the surfaces.
No difference.
So I took out these:



Perhaps Kool-Stop's dual compound pads will solve my problem. They are a little funky as they have this extension on the rear of the pads I think to promote toe in contact. So I put them on and here's what I got:



Gee, I didn't know Kool-Stops have a built in safety feature too!
I hope the Banshee Brakes folks know about this.
Anyways, it looks like I'll be safe on the paths for now.
If they can't see me, for sure they'll be able to hear me.

2 comments:

John Romeo Alpha said...

You've got Banshee rims.

limom said...

Everything was peachy keen until I took off my front rack.