Is this bad for the carbon braking surface or dangerous to the rider because of a lack of braking power? Or both? I have my old set of Zipp 606’s that I want to let my dad use for the next race. He does not have carbon specific brake pads. It is an olympic distance race with no downhills. Will this setup work for one race or should I not risk it?
Just buy some new carbon specific pads… it’s not worth ruining a pair of zipps for one race
Zipp will work with any Shimano or Campy OE pad.
Zipp will work with any Shimano or Campy OE pad.
What about Sram Rival brakes?
I am sure you are fine. Check the pads for shards of Alu and rocks and what not.
From Josh at Zipp
From a data point of view, the braking of carbon rims is very specific to the manufacturer, so you will generally be best to do what they recommend. Our silica ceramic surface is actually slightly more agressive than aluminum when dry and about 96% as effective when wet when using the specific Zipp pad. Many rims like those from Corima, Campagnolo and many of the Taiwanese rims have a pure carbon surface at the brake track and you will need to use a cork pad so as not to damage the rim.
The cork pads are soft and have a low coefficient of friction, but will not damage the all carbon surface. For more aggressive braking a stock Shimano or Campy pad can work, but these contain abrasives such as aluminum oxide which can damage a pure carbon surface (aluminum oxide is the stuff they make sand paper from). Campy and Shimano pads will not damage a Zipp rim as our surface is very hard, but the Campy pads specifically are so agressive that they generate excessive heat and can melt, leaving melted brake pad on the rim, which is almost worse than wearing the rim out as the melted pad material can cause brake pulsation and can be very hard to remove.
Our pad is thermally conductive for lower temperatures, and will not melt, so it is very safe for any carbon rim, and works well on aluminum rims. Our pads also will not abrade your aluminum rims making them last longer, but for most any other carbon rim you are really safest to use cork which is completely non-abrasive, but really doesn’t work well at all on aluminum rims.
Nice. Thanks for your help. I will check the pads for foreign particles or I guess I could splurge for some pads.
like record said, the stock pads will work but if he does use them a lot:
a) he’ll wear through your pads in record time and you might need to buy new ones after the race anyways
b) you could, just maybe, leave some gummy melted pad residue on your rims which makes the braking track a bit grabby for future use.
I’ve used stock pads many times and regretted it on my Zipp disk although the 404’s never seemed to mind. You sure do chew through the pads fast though.