Customer Reviews

Kool Stop Eagle Claw 2 Cantilever Bicycle Brake Shoes

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I have been riding with these on my mountain bike for over a month. So far I love them. My old Shimano pads had become noisy, and were grinding down the rims. These Kool Stop pads are almost silent. They do a much better job of stopping the bike than the old pads. They work well in the rain, they are easy to modulate, and they aren't "grabby."

One note of caution: Thoroughly clean your rims before putting these pads on, to remove all the material deposited by your old pads. Otherwise, your wet stopping ability will be decreased.

I have years of experience installing brake shoes on my bikes and on other people's bikes. There are no better brake shoes (brake pads) than Kool Stop. These are worth every penny. They would be a bargain at twice the price.

put these on my bmx bike. originally, it took a long time for my brakes to fully stop my bike. then i put these on, and the lightest tap of the brake and the wheel would skid (fun, but bad for tires.) i wouldnt reccomend them for front brakes, because these will probably shoot u over the handlebars. definately buy!!

One of the best brake pads you can buy satisfies me once again! You really can't beat Kool-Stop for their price and quality. The threaded models have a long enough bolt that will fit almost any center pull / side pull brake system. Highly recommend.

I've had my Trek 820 forever. So naturally the brakes were starting to thin. I bought these Kool Stop Eagle Claw 2 to replace them and to get a bit more performance from my brakes (I'm an aggressive trail rider). Now I bought these in December so I haven't got to try these on the trails yet but I can already tell that THEY ARE GREAT. I put them on my bike in the morning when it was 17 degrees. I was messing around in the snow and I needed to brake, so I hit the brakes and almost flew off my bike because I wasn't expecting them to stop so well, even in the snow. These are the best brakes ever. No doubt.

Just installed last week, so they're still getting broken in, but so far, the pads are quiet, grippy (only installed a pair on my rear brakes so far), and smooooooth. Definitely a huge improvement over the (potentially original) old Dia-compe pads on my cantis. Look a lot nicer too! Made sure to thoroughly clean off the rim before using the new ones, as advised by other reviewers and the product packaging.

To follow up after additional use. They can squeal sometimes, if you have to brake for an extended time like on a steep downhill. And when they do, they squeal REAL loudly. Pedestrians definitely know you're coming. For now I just have a pair on my rear brakes, so it's not a big deal as they don't get used much, but I could see it potentially being annoying if I had them on the front. But I haven't tried anything to make them quit squealing either, since it's pretty infrequent.

Could not make these things stop squealing. Took the bike to the shop and the mechanic could not make them stop squealing. Returned them for another brand and now all is well.

The problem with these is they do not use the standard cup washers to allow adjusting toe in/out. So if they happen to fit your arrangement perfectly, you are in. If not, you are SOL. I've used different Koolstops on my road bike and my experience has been that they are superb pads. This particular model, unfortunately, would not work for me. So I have to give it one star. Your mileage may vary.

I bought these pads for my Cannondale Hybrid and am very pleased. They have great stopping power wet or dry without grabbing and are very quiet. You need to adjust them properly when installing them so that they are parallel to the rim and with a little trial and error you'll get them to where you want them. Much better than the stock pads that came with the bike.

I put these on an old, rusty Trek 820. The rest of the bike may feel like it is about to fall apart, but it definitely stops well. These brake pads grip the rim pretty well. There is some squeaking I have not been able to adjust out, but I do not know if it is related to the pads themselves; I am inclined to say no.

I've got a pair of these Kool-Stops (Dual compound) on my MTB but they are not any better than the standard all-black "sticky fingers" pads by Avenir. If anything, I think the Avenir's are better as they stop just as well in wet or dry (if not better) and seem to be wearing better than the Kool-stops.

An interesting thing about the Avenir Sticky fingers is that they mount exactly backwards from these Kool-Stops in that the bigger side of the pad goes on the trailing edge of the mounting post rather than the other way around like on the Kool-Stops.

Since my old Ross Cantilever-braked Mt. Hood was made before the days of these non-symmetrical pads the Kool-Stops won't fit up front in the correct orientation and the Sticky-Fingers won't fit in back without interfering with the wheelstays when I try and pull the wheels out and not openening up all the way. The only way around this is to run the pads backwards from the way they are labled. The Sticky-fingers don't seem to make a difference frontwards or backawards, but the Kool-stops have a huge loss in performance when run backwards. I could get away with running the Avenir's front and back but I've just been running the Kool-Stops in back and the Sticky-Fingers up front. This is something to think about if you have an older MTB and don't have as much clearance between the Cantis and the wheelstays or forks.

These Kool-Stops are OK brakes but not worth the price when the Avenir Sticky-Fingers are just as good, reversible, and much cheaper. Maybe when people discover this the price of them will go up to match their performance and the price of the Kool-Stops.