Giant TCR C3 - Tektro Brake replacement

[price999]

I'm having my new Giant TCR C3 assembled at the bike shop next week and am considering having different brakes installed from the start. After reading numerous reviews, it seems like the stock Tektro Brakes that come on this bike are pretty worthless and need to be replaced. My question is do I need to replace the calipers and pads or just the pads? Can anyone recommend a good brake replacement?



Thanks

[JCavilia]

I'm having my new Giant TCR C3 assembled at the bike shop next week and am considering having different brakes installed from the start. After reading numerous reviews, it seems like the stock Tektro Brakes that come on this bike are pretty worthless and need to be replaced. My question is do I need to replace the calipers and pads or just the pads? Can anyone recommend a good brake replacement?

Tektro has a reputation for making very good, reasonably-priced stuff, and you're getting something near the top of their line. I've got much cheaper Tektro brakes (brake, actually -- it's a front brake on a fixie) on one bike, and it functions fine. I wouldn't spend money on replacing the calipers, personally.

However, any stock brake (including Campy and Shimano) can be improved by replacing the pads with KoolStops, IMO.

[Bertrand]

I have Tektro brakes on my bike, as well, and they work fine. They actually have better modulation, stopping power, and adjustability than the 20-year-old Dura Ace brakes I had on my former bike.

However, I did change the brake pads within a month or so and that made a huge difference. I am using Dura Ace pads, but I'm sure any other higher-end brake pad would work as well.

[rogger]

Tektro calipers work fine when you replace the pads with something like koolstop pads. Fine but not great and in my experience are more susceptible to return spring freeze up as the higher production tolerances allow for easy gunk build up at the pivots. YMMV.

[Doc_D]

I just replaced the Tektros on my TCR limited with dura-ace brakes. The difference is night and day. The dura-ace brakes have much more stopping power. You might be able to achieve the same thing with different pads on the tektros.

[nick ojeda]

i noticed that the tektro calipers have longer reach. also, the distance of the caliper mounting hole to the rim is longer for giants (esp OCR) than other brands. could it be that they designed the giants that way to accommodate bigger tires? i had a problem installing the new control tech carbon clincher wheelsets on my 03 TCR allux the dura ace calipers had short reach (39-49mm) and the brake pads could not reach the braking surface and so i had to ditch the control tech carbons. i heard that ultegra has a long reach model.

[JimP]

I have the Tektro / Oval Concepts time trial brakes. The calipers are a little heavier than they could be but work quite well. The Tektro brake pads are very hard and don't provide as much stopping ability as Kool Stop or SwissStop brake pads. I have switched to the Yellow SwissStop (carbon specific) pads and have fantastic braking action.

[lawrence]

The brake calipers are fine, replace the brake pads with KoolStop Salmon.