two hundred sixty two

 SQUEAK SQUEAK SQUEAK

I'm old school in my approach to touring bikes. A touring bike is designed to be kind of boring. The day in and day out wear and tare of the elements, vibration and hard use require reliability. 

I understand why they once hanged horse thieves. I became so dependent on a functioning bicycle, in fact at times it was a matter of life and death. My worst nightmare was having my bike and gear stolen, I have read stories of this happening to other adventurers. I know I would figure out how to get home but it would be very very hard to get over.

Disk breaks are better in many ways and are very reliable. I prefer a braking system that is bomb proof and one I can repair. Cantilever style brakes have one nagging problem they glaze and squeak. My first two sets of pads did this, they functioned well but they squeaked like hell. 

I discovered these Kool-Stop brake pads made with two densities of rubber. They do not glaze or squeak. This is my second set. The first set was fine with some wear but I changed them out to start fresh for the next tour.

Roaring down a mountain pass using the stabbing method I use driving tour busses with air brakes. You brake hard to drop the speed then coast until you gather the speed again then hard brake again and so on. I found it works much better than riding the brakes. 

These brake pads were amazing time after time, even wet stopping was reliable. One really great thing I never ever heard a single SQUEAK!