Replaced the dog-water stock brakes on my priority ace with these, and the difference is night and day. I can stop much faster, and with way less lever force. Have yet to wear through them, but will update on the longevity once I do wear them out.

Worth every penny! Unmatched stopping power, quiet, and lasts a long time. These are the only brake pads I trust on my bikes and trikes.

I had no idea how much my weak brake performance was tied to me being cheap when buying brake pads until I decided to see if these were any better than the sub $10 sets I usually bought.They installed as readily as any brake pads do, and once I got the cable tension right, I took 'em out for a spin to see how well they could stop. My first test was the rear brakes as they provide the least amount of braking force. They stopped me better than any complete set I've used in the last 20 years.Great product. Very satisfied. Will buy again.

I've been on a journey with a 2003 GT Palomar. I didn't care for how it rode, fit or shifted, when it was given to me new in 2004. So after a few short rides it was put in shed.When it saw daylight for a ride in 2013, it was hit on the rear wheel by a car. The wheel was bent so badly that I was barely able to limp it home with the V-brakes released. Then it went back in the shed.In 2021, it saw daylight again as I was going to junk it. I didn't think the cost of a wheel straightening, or new wheel and tune up at a bike shop was justified on a 20 year old $230 bicycle. But, it had less than 100 miles on it and seemed to be comparable with some new bikes in the $500 and up range. So I cleaned it up and figured I'd try to fix, service and sell it.I watched videos that taught me how to fix the indexed shifting and straighten the bent wheel. Then I gave the old GT a full tear down and service.On a test ride, it was smoother and quieter than anything I'd ever owned and I figured no one would give me what I felt it was worth now. The GT had a Chrome Moly frame, which is heavier than a newer aluminum frame, but I prefer the ride over an aluminum frame. So, I decided to try to make it fit me better instead of selling it.A new seat post and handlebars helped the fit. Then came the upgrades...One of the upgrades was a set of Rhyno Lite 36h wheels/ Deore XT hubs that I got a great deal on. These replaced the stock Alex Y2000 wheels and gave me an upgrade from freewheel to cassette so that I could get the gearing I wanted.I had no intention of putting the lightly used, possibly petrified, 20 year old V-brake pads on the new wheels and did some research.Kool Stop seems to have been around awhile and the pads claim to be "rim friendly". They also seem to have good reviews, with the exception of some people mentioning a tendency to squeal if not adjusted right.So, I ordered a set in to give them a try.Out of the package, the pads have their own washers, are marked L and R and were longer than the stock pads. The compound felt far softer than the stock pads I removed from the GT. But that could also be due to the age of the original pads I was replacing.The bike has the stock Tektro V-Brakes from when it was new in 2003, so while I was there, I pulled the V- Brake arms and cleaned and greased the mounts. I also disassembled and cleaned lubed the levers and their pivot points. Then after a quick cleaning of the Kool Stop pads and wheel braking surface, the pads installed easily.I'm not sure what to say about the reviews that mention the squealing and toe in to prevent it. I positioned the pads while holding the V-Brake closed against the rim with my fingers, then snugged them down. I did not set a toe in. I heard a light squeal twice right after installation, but that has been it.Even after a re-adjustment of the pads because they shifted due to me not tightening them enough during installation, there has been no noise.I run a tight tolerance on my cables, just enough slack so that there is no pad rub. My levers pull maybe 1/4" or less before the brakes are fully engaged. These pads under light lever pressure, were like putting disc brakes on the old GT.Am I saying these pads are as good as discs? No.But as I own a 2006 Cannondale with XTR hydraulic discs, I can say that for the type of recreational riding I do, the GT's V-brakes are now comparable to the discs on the Cannondale for the way I use the bicycles.I'm 55 around 6'6", 220-230lbs and ride on New England back roads with steep hills and sometimes trails/paths with inclines, rocks and tree roots. So far, these pads have more than enough braking power for how I ride both on and off road.I can't say how these pads are when wet, as I don't ride in the rain.Are they better than other brands that are out there? I don't know.I do know that I have no regrets on this purchase.The pads have been excellent so far and would easily throw me off the GT if I applied them hardRide safe.

I won't go into a whole lot of detail because I'm honestly pretty new to biking, but from what I can tell, these pads are amazing; at least in the dry weather and moist roads I've used them in so far (no active rain yet). The braking power is FAR superior to the stock pads my cheap road bike came with and so far I completely trust these brakes even while going fast and needing to stop in a short amount of time. I'd be careful though because these can definitely lock up your front wheel if you apply too much pressure--something that my stock pads really couldn't do because they didn't have the braking power to do it.The installation was pretty straight-forward and it's pretty easy to get them mounted toe-in. These were a bit tricky to get perfectly adjusted though because of the massive length interfering with my fork, but after getting my quick-release wheel a bit more centered by tightening it more it wasn't much of a problem afterwards. I haven't experienced any squeaking yet and all I really did was wipe around both sides of the wheel along the braking surface a few times with isopropyl alcohol and install them slightly toe-in. No idea what my braking surface is made out of (most likely aluminum), but if you want to do some research on that then I'm using the Merax Finiss 50cm road bike with 700x28c stock wheels (B01M6573UR).These also installed just fine on my road bike's side-pull brakes even though these are advertised for cantilever brake systems and mountain bikes. However, like I mentioned earlier, they go all the way to the back of the fork so if you have extra-wide rims on your road bike then there may not be enough clearance for these to fit and if you have giant tires (>~32mm) that almost touch the fork then you'll have to loosen the pads and turn them vertical in order to get the calipers to extend out further to give enough clearance to remove the tire. But really, there shouldn't be any compatibility problems for 95% of road bikes.EDIT: May 29, 2017Brakes are still working great and still no squeaking. The only time they ever squeak is when I'm going less than 4mph and very lightly pressing down on the brake lever and even then it's a quiet squeak. Really not even worth mentioning to be honest. Still an easy 5/5.

Great Breaks!! I love that they slowly start to break and not just grip either on or off but have a gradual griping but If you still want to stop on a dime just pull all the way down and you will slide. They work as well as disc breaks but the only thing I have noticed is they squeak a little but maybe its because they haven't been worn in enough for instance my back breaks don't squeak that much but my front breaks do because I don't use my front breaks as much so maybe if I try to use those a little more they will also not squeak as much this is the reason I gave 4 stars instead of 5. Overall well worth buying and easy to install far better than the breaks I had on my bike before!