I recently sold my old 808s and bought a new pair of firecrest tubulars. I have 07 ZG brakes, and with the new thickness of the wheel I get zero clearance. The articulation of the brakes also won’t work because now they are actually open as far as possible with the qr open. Any suggestions?
I am planning to buy the new TRP brakes when they are available, but I am racing next weekend, and need to find a solution.
If I need to shave down the pads, how do you do that?
Neal
Sandpaper, various grits:
Coarse grit to get it down to the approximate depth.
Medium/fine to get to to a smoother surface.
Lay the sandpaper on a flat surface, grab the brake pad (better if installed into the brake shoe for better hand grip and less knuckle scraping)
Rub the brake surface into the the sandpaper with even strokes.
Try the keep the braking surface of the pads as flat as possible.
You should be good to go
While HED has made wide rims for some time, the latest wheels from Zipp and Bontrager are pushing the limits of what current brakes can handle. Certain aero and time trial bicycles, like the current Shiv from Specialized, have brakes that simply don’t open enough for Firecrest-width rims to pass through. It becomes necessary to shave down even already thin cork pads or remove pad holder spacers.
i just removed the pad spacers and it helped
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Contact ZG, I believe they or other have low profile pad holders.
Styrrell
Here is one place
I recently sold my old 808s and bought a new pair of firecrest tubulars. I have 07 ZG brakes, and with the new thickness of the wheel I get zero clearance. The articulation of the brakes also won’t work because now they are actually open as far as possible with the qr open. Any suggestions?
I am planning to buy the new TRP brakes when they are available, but I am racing next weekend, and need to find a solution.
If I need to shave down the pads, how do you do that?
I’m assuming you’re using the Zipp cork pads like you’re supposed to, right? 
I had the same issue running a 404 FC in a Simkins brake. Luckily, Jordan had sent me some extra Zipp cork pads and I trimmed off 1mm of each pad with an X-acto knife. A razor blade should work fine as well. Just draw a line on the pad with a marker and then follow it with the blade and the pad trims very easily.
The cool thing about doing that is I figured out how much I had to trim so that I didn’t even need to change the brake setting when swapping between the wide rim and cork pads and my narrow training wheel and regular pads 
Be careful with how you hold the pad while you’re cutting it though
x2
Zero Gravity has two different sets of low profile pad holders. Problem solved.
I’m assuming you’re using the Zipp cork pads like you’re supposed to, right?
I had the same issue running a 404 FC in a Simkins brake. Luckily, Jordan had sent me some extra Zipp cork pads and I trimmed off 1mm of each pad with an X-acto knife. A razor blade should work fine as well. Just draw a line on the pad with a marker and then follow it with the blade and the pad trims very easily.
Whoops… this X-acto trim sounds about right. I use Swiss Stop Yellow’s on my Firecrest’s, so the sandpaper route works for me. I don’t think sandpaper would work well with cork.
That’s not true…I have a Shiv with Zipp FC’s and I didn’t have to shave the cork pads…as a matter of fact I changed the brake levers that came with the bike to SRAM levers and have no issues.
Feel ftee to inform velonews, I shared their link
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I am planning to buy the new TRP brakes when they are available, but I am racing next weekend, and need to find a solution.
which “new TRP brakes”? i’m in the market for a firecrest-friendly aero brake. is anyone using the center-pull TRP T726R with a front firecrest?
I am not sure they are aero but they release the r979 which is specifically made for wider rims. Search velonews for info on them from Eurobike.
I use a coarse file to shave down my brake pads.
ah, found them thanks:
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