A few months ago, I was doing some shopping on Wiggle.com and my shopping cart came about $10 short of the cut-off for free shipping to the USA (I think it was something like >$100 purchase = free shipping, or something like that)… But anyway, I searched around for a cheap item to put me over the limit, and came across these gems: Ashima Brake Pads for Carbon Rims (http://www.wiggle.co.uk/p/cycle/7/Ashima_Carbon_Brake_Pad_Inserts/5360043570/). I don’t have any affiliation or anything, just wanted to throw out a review for others who might have been wondering about this product.
I’m a big fan of reliable braking and have been pretty loyal to the swiss stop yellow pads in the past, and even recently, dropped the $75 to try out the zipp tangente cork pads, so I was pretty skeptical about what a $16 set of Ashimas could do for me, but I figured I would try them albeit my low expectations.
I’ve logged about 500 mi w/ the pads on a set of carbon tubulars since then and, overall, I have to these are a real quality product! They fit perfectly into my shimano brake shoes and have provided solid smooth braking power. They have a “cork-like” feel to them that is reminiscent of the tangente’s, which is a little bit better feel (in my opinion) than the “rubbery” texture of the swiss stops. The zipp’s were great, don’t get me wrong, but the fact that these $16 Ashima’s are even comparable to them in my testing makes them well worth it to me. I’ve had no issues stopping in the rain or on some very fast descents. I have also been very aware of checking for any issues with heating up w/ prolonged stopping and haven’t noticed anything. The wear seems to be great, and perhaps even a little bit slower than the Zipps.
I’m a big fan of the Ashima’s now and doubt that I will go back to the more expensive options in the future.