I have used Zipp cork brake pads on my Aelous 9.0's and have had 0 issues whatsoever. Love them. Was reccomendef by other ST'ers on this forum

Are they better than the Bontrager Cork pads which perform horribly in the wet?

My response is probably of not much help but like you I have switched to the Swiss Stop Black Prince. Used only in dry conditions and have worked really well. With limited use I have not seen any residue/residue. The OEM cork from Bontrager pads that came with the wheels are horrible in my opinion, even in dry conditions.

I have been using Swiss stop yellow on my Aeolus 7. However, I have only had light rain on them and not tested them in a crazy deluge yet. I only use them at races or the 2-3 day before when i travel to races, so they have only been used around 15 times this year.

Just a heads up the yellow Swiss Stop pad are advised against by Bontrager and many others as they will dig into the rims and cause bad streaking under heavy braking.

I couldn't tell you. I bought the wheels off ebay and bought the pads because of the not so great reviews of Bontrager pads. Wet weather I have not done yet because they are race day only and have had no rain yet. (Lucky)

What pads were you using? Also do you see any streaking or residue on brake track?

That's interesting...I used them for ages on my Zipps and HEDs with no issues including riding on very technical stuff in the Alps. So far the braking has been solid with the Swiss Stop yellow on the Aeolus. I'd rather have solid braking, but what do you mean by streaking? Do you mean the carbon wears away? I see zero sign of that.

Check out this thread. They are saying the same thing, and there are many others on the internet.

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/forum/Slowtwitch_Forums_C1/Triathlon_Forum_F1/Those_running_Bontrager_Aeolus_Wheels_-_which_pads_P4696329/

This is an example of streaking:

I was told the same thing. Honestly, the bontrager cork pads are terrible and, in general, braking on the Aeolus is sub-par which is the only reason I abandoned them. They really are great wheels, built like tanks and very fast, but Bontrager desperately needs to figure out how to improve braking.

i have not seen that on mine. It seems that this streaking you speak of is just some residue left over from the pad? Are they worried about the rims overheating with heavy braking on technical downhills causing a blowout? The reality is there is some physics at play. if you want better stopping power, you end up with more heat. That is the only way it works because you can't stop without converting kinetic energy into heat. Now the next question is "how quickly can the rim get ride of heat". Aluminium rims are thermal conductors (much more than carbon) so they will transfer heat more quickly to the surrounding air than a carbon rim. i'm guessing that the Bontrager engineers know darn well how quickly or poorly their carbon transfers heat (especially with big rider, down a steep hill at slow air speed on a hot day...) and they don't want a lot of guys warping their clincher rim under a ton of heat load...so what do they do....they ask you to use brake pads with inferior stopping power, so that you don't end up being that heavy guy who dramatically overheats the rims while stopping really hard on a super steep hill at slow airflow speeds on a 40C day and blows the tire off the rim. I think this is the real reason, not the streaking. The streaking should just be cosmetic.

This is also why i kept my old tubular race wheels. If I go back to race at IM France, I probably won't use the Aeolus 7 carbon clinchers.

I use the Swiss stop black prince on a set of D3 Aeolus 50mm and they work awesome! They wear down fast but I have not seen any streaking at all. A little pad residue remains on the rim bed after hard long braking but just blows off in the wind or falls off, it's just the pads wearing down. Stick with the black prince pads IMO.

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"I swim because that's how I get to ride my bike."

I believe the Zipp rubber pads that work with aluminum as well as carbon stop the best. Having said that Aeolus wheels do not stop like and aluminum rim in any conditions. I have a set for sale on ebay right now specifically for that reason. I think they are great riding and fine in Tri's but god help you on serious descending in the mountains. JMO

+1
I have a set of the A3s and use the black prince pads. They stop well and I have not seen any issues with wear on the break track. I run these on my P2 and ride them at least 2X a week. I have not been caught out in a deluge, but have had good breaking on days with light rain.

It's residue from the pad, and I've heard from some sources that the pad will melt onto the rim during prolonged braking.

Another possible way for these pads to dissipate heat is to ablate away the pad material, which is why you see super fast wear on some newer pads like the Zipp Platinum and the Swiss Stop Black Prince. Judging from what I've heard about the good durability of yellow swiss stop pads, they do not seem to do this. So that could be a contributing factor to why swiss stop says run hotter than the newer Black Prince.

I guess you have to look at your use case. The Bonetrager engineers need to make recommendations based on say a 200 lb guy descending Alpe d'Huez at 60 -70 kph coming into each hair pin turn, riding the brakes hard, on a 42 C day. They need to make recommendations based on absolute worst case rider use case. At least if they are proper engineers, that is what they have to do and base all blanket statements to the public based on this because there is a chance that there will be some who will. They are bike wheels and need to survive fairly worst case riding scenarios.

On the other hand, if you are 150 lbs, and riding IM Florida on a flat course one a moderate day, the braking dynamics should be entirely different. So what's your use case? Heat build up should be fairly proportional to rider weight, starting speed, ending speed, and time taken to stop and ambiant temp and relative airflow over the rim (rider speed does not tell the full story, because rim cooling in an 40 kph headwind will be better than 0 kph wind).

So if your braking use case is fairly benign (I am 140 lbs, and mainly only riding WTC and local tri courses), then I'd rather have decent stopping power in an emergency, because the reality is that i am no where close to the worst case rider use case.

What do you think? Why ride around with shitty stopping power that is recommended against mainly to protect Bonetrager against a lawsuit from a worst case rider?

Now you guys may have the final laugh when at 140 lbs I somehow manage to superheat my rims and blow out a front wheel at 75 kph, but I'm generally not that type of "braker". There are ways to brake so your rims have a chance to cool on a long mountain descent if needed. We learned that old school riding in the 80's in the Alps :-)

This is why I think disc brakes are coming to replace carbon clincher rim braking

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You are correct it does depend comeptely on use case. I am a pretty list guy at 140, but I do road racing in a pretty mountainous area so I would be an somewhere on the boundary between your two use case examples.

In my case I would err on the side of safety. It also rains allot where I am so I am worried about braking in the wet.

Save 100 grams drag with carbon wheels.
Lose 150 grams with disc brakes


Genius

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Enve, enve, and enve. The best around in all conditions, and won't mar your brake tracks...

Have you tried this on the aeolus wheels?

I hear your point. I guess the line between safety is the tradeoff between superior stopping power and heat buildup and potential blow out. Sounds like the Swiss Stop Black Prince would be the in between bet for you.

Bringing this thread back to the front page in order to offer an update on approved pads for D3 wheels: the SwissStop Black Prince were recently approved by Bontrager for on-road braking in conjunction with the D3 line of wheels. This comes after extensive testing with our pro team riders as well as a complete set of lab/bench tests.

The previous generation Aeolus carbon rims (5.0, 6.5, 9.0) still require Bontrager cork pads, and D3's used for cyclocross also require the Bontrager corks.

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Carl Matson

Was there a significant difference between breaking power in dry or wet or Rom temperature between the two?

Also what's the reason behind only allowing cork pads for cyclocross?