CyclistBest brake pads 2026 for road and gravel bikes, with options for disc and rim brakesThe best replacement brake pads include both disc brake and rim brake options. While gravel bikes will invariably include disc brakes, older road bikes and those sold at lower prices may still feature rim brakes.Sooner or later, your brake pads will need replacing, whether your bike has disc or rim brakes, so this guide covers our top picks for both tyres of brakes. It also splits rim brake pads into those for alloy rims and those designed for carbon rims, as the two are not intercompatible.Of course, rather than choose brake pads from a specialist brand, theres the option to choose pads from the brake callipers manufacturer, replacing like with like. Its not always the best choice though, as aftermarket brake pads can be more effective and often cheaper. Here, weve selected our top picks of aftermarket replacement pads, but our separate guides to the best disc brake pads and best rim brake pads include more choices, including those sold by the brakes manufacturers. They also provide detailed advice on how to choose.Our pick of the best road bike brake padsBest disc brake padsSwissStop: RRP from 20Aztec: RRP from 13 Clarks: RRP from 10 Jagwire: RRP from 15 Best rim brake pads for alloy rimsAshima 3 Function: RRP 18Kool-Stop Dura 2: RRP 25 SwissStop Flash Pro BXP Alloy: RRP 22.99 Best rim brake pads for carbon rimsSwissStop Flash Pro Yellow King Carbon: RRP 40 Zipp Tangente Platinum Pro Evo: RRP 45 BBB CarbStop 4 in 1 Carbon: RRP 21 Why trust Cyclists advice?Whether your road bike is equipped with disc or rim brakes, sooner or later it will need its brake pads replacing. Here at Cyclist, our team of reviewers has vast experience riding both disc brake and rim brake bikes, so we know how to keep both brake types working efficiently. You can rely on our collective experience to recommend the best brake pads, whatever your setup. Were not paid for product placement, so you can trust our advice to be unbiased. Related Posts Best gravel bike wheels 2026 Best disc brake pads 2026 for road and gravel bikes plus buying advice Best road bike wheels 2026 reviewed Best road bike rim brake pads 2026 Best disc brake pad brandsReplacement pads for disc brakes come in a range of different shapes. Most road bikes use one of a few options though, so once you know what brand and model your brake calliper is, it should be fairly easy to narrow down the choices.SwissStop20 | Buy hereSwissStop appears in our list of suppliers for both disc and rim brakes for a reason. It sells a wide range of brake pads and different grades, so there should be one to suit. It makes four grades of disc brake pads, which differ in their intended use, longevity and modulation, with top spec pads including cooling fins on their backs. It offers compatibility charts and more to help you to choose.Aztec13 | Buy hereAztecs pads are more affordable than SwissStops but still offer a range of compatibility and materials to suit different needs.There are sintered and organic options, as well as rim brake pads in its range.Clarks10 | Buy hereClarks is another brand with replacement pads for a wide range of brakes, including road disc brakes from Shimano, SRAM, Campagnolo and TRP. Theres a choice of organic, sintered and semi-metallic compounds, all available at prices that usually undercut the competition.Jagwire15 | Buy hereJagwires range includes pads for road disc brakes, with options including pads designed for electric bikes and high performance pads with cooling fins. There are three compound options too: organic, sintered and semi-metallic.Best brake blocks for alloy rimsRim brake pads need to match your rim material, with different pads needed for alloy and carbon rims. Ashima 3 Function15.48 (RRP: 18.00) | Buy hereAshimas multi-compound pads include grooves to dissipate water, while the pointed end-piece is designed to snowplough debris and water off your rim before it hits the brake surface and so reduce wear. Theres plenty of power, although the wear rate is faster than some pricier brake pads.Kool-Stop Dura 225 | Buy hereKool-Stops Dura 2 pads are its standard offering, available in black or salmon, which is softer and so less long-lasting. There are also dual and triple compound pads and it sells pads for carbon rim brakes. All brake well but shouldnt chew up your rims.SwissStop Flash Pro BXP Alloy19.99 (RRP 22.99) | Buy hereSwissStops alloy rim option is more affordable than its carbon rim brake pads, but still provides great performance in a package thats kind to rims but still offers top braking performance.Best brake blocks for carbon rimsSwissStop Flash Pro Yellow King Carbon29.99 (RRP 40) | Buy hereMoving rapidly on to SwissStops carbon rim pads, the Flash Pro Yellow King pads provide impressive stopping power wet or dry, while remaining kind to carbon rims. Theyre quiet too. Zipp Tangente Platinum Pro Evo29.99 (RRP 44.99) | Buy hereWhile Zipps current wheels are exclusively disc brake, if you have an older pair of rim brake wheels, these Zipp pads provide proven compatibility. Theyre formulated to avoid fade and disperse water from rims in wet conditions for more efficient braking. BBB Carbstop 4 in 115.99 (RRP 20.99) | Buy hereBBBs extensive aftermarket brake pad range includes pads for disc brakes and alloy and carbon rim brake wheels. It claims its compound avoids residue build-up on the wheel, as well as preventing overheating and offering high durability. The 4-in-1 name indicates compatibility with a wide range of brake shoes, including BBBs own. The post Best brake pads 2026 for road and gravel bikes, with options for disc and rim brakes appeared first on Cyclist.

The early season Spanish one-day races do not stop, and today we have another round of the Mallorca challenge with the Trofeo Serra de Tramuntana. It is a hilly day with four categorized climbs that are not overly steep, and it is the ideal terrain for someone like Remco Evenepoel. The Belgian rider...

Arizonas State Bicycle Company has a video series called Riding Fixed, Up Mountains, With Pros. And apparently, this is episode 17! Man, I didnt even know these existed. If you have an extra 30 minutes, its worth the watch. Keegan starts the climb at 5515 and climbs 3204 over 24 miles on a fixed-gear bike, smashing a 48tx19t!And there is a surprise at the endSwenson holds the World Championship, Leadville, and Lifetime Grand Prix titles. This episode covers racing strategies, training approaches, and the equipment Keegan uses to stay competitive at the top level of endurance cycling.After the climb, the group ends up doing karaoke at the summit, which I loved because, why take yourselves too seriously?Check it out! Check out all of the Riding Fixed, Up Mountains, With Pros series at the link below!StateBicycle.comThe post State Bicycle Co. Rides Fixed, Up a Mountain with with Keegan Swenson appeared first on Bikerumor.

Belgian wins Trofeo Serra Tramuntana at Challenge Mallorca

Remco Evenepoel delivered a performance of authority and intent at the Trofeo Serra Tramuntana, riding away from the field with a long-range solo to claim his first road victory in Red Bull colours and underline exactly what this new chapter is about. On a demanding Mallorcan route packed with repea...

The case that cast a shadow over the junior mens road race at the 2025 Road World Championships in Kigali has now reached its conclusion. The Union Cycliste Internationale has confirmed that Azerbaijani rider Artyom Proskuryakov has been handed a three-year ban following an Anti-Doping Rule Violati...

Remco Evenepoels solo victory at Trofeo Serra de Tramuntana was not an opportunistic move born of chaos, but a fully committed plan executed exactly where Red Bull BORA hansgrohe had intended. The Belgian launched his decisive attack on the Coll de Soller with 55 kilometres still remaining, tur...

The short-lived strategy was reversed following pressure from Cycling UK and others

For Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe, Trofeo Serra Tramuntana delivered more than another early-season victory. It offered immediate confirmation that Remco Evenepoel is already shaping races in exactly the way the team envisaged when they secured his signature. Sports director Oliver Cookson made that c...

So apparently some legislator in New Hampshire wants a mandatory $50 bicycle registration fee or something:As is generally the case with these things, the idea behind it is that if these pesky cyclists want bike lanes and bike paths and other useless crap like that then they should have to pay for it themselves:Walsh said there are details to his plan he expected to change, but that the basic logic of the bill should be familiar in a state where vehicle registration fees help pay for transportation projects.Lets do this fair. If we have a bunch of modes, lets look at the user of the mode to pay, Walsh said. You either agree with the user fee theory or you dont. I happen to.Okay, obviously Im completely against bicycle registration fees, and obviously theyre dumb. Theres this idea that people who ride bicycles are somehow exempt from taxes and should incur some sort of punitive surcharge for their freeloading ways, which is especially silly since here in Canadas unfettered id most people who ride bikes also own and operate motor vehicles and pay all the associated fees anyway. And sure, sometimes municipalities build recreational paths and stuff that are only for cyclists, but they also build stuff like public running tracks and swimming pools, and Ive never heard anyone argue that you should have to pay a registration fee for your sneakers or your bathing suit. (Though arguably some people should be fined for wearing swimming costumes in public.) But of course the main reason I object to mandatory bicycle registration fees is that riding a bicycle should be an easy and accessible option for anyone who wants to do it and that there should be as few obstacles as possible for those who choose to do it.And yetIm [XX] years old now, and Id be lying if part of me doesnt find the idea of a bicycle registration fee appealing. However, I think if youre going to do it, you shouldnt dick around. $50? Please. What is that, a few inner tubes bottles of sealant? Why not go all the way? Bicycle registration should cost $1,000 per year at a minimum, though I could maybe get behind something like a $100 surcharge for each additional bicycle, or for any bike operated by a rider under 18 years of age. (Maybe those under-18 registration fees could be determined by wheel size, though then youd have people riding Bromptons as a workaround.)So whats my reasoning here? Well, since this is 2026 and people take everything literally, Ill remind you once again that Im completely against bicycle registration fees. However, I am old and ornery, and as the part of me that cares about other people shrivels up and dies I do increasingly wonder if maybe this whole cycling should be accessible thing was a bit of a mistake.Im not sure when the concept of making cycling accessible and easy for people was invented, but I only came across it after I started this blog in 2007. See, my experience with riding bikes as a child was that you had to stay alert at all times because your bike was liable to be stolen at any moment, plus of course there was the ever-present danger of getting run over by a car. (I know youre supposed to say run over by a driver, not a car, but when youre that age a car really is just a free-roaming wildebeest and something you instinctively avoid.) Then as I got older I started racing BMX, where kids would make fun of your clothes if you didnt have the right gear, and where if you crashed theyd just ride right over you. So by the time I was an adult I had no trouble with the idea of riding around in a hostile urban environment, or with the hidebound world of road cycling, or with the concept that if you got dropped on a group ride 50 miles from home and you had no idea where you were then tough shit, that was your problem.But then I started this blog, were I mostly made fun of all the new fixie riders who were suddenly everywhere. Certainly this was the natural order of things, right? Id paid my dues, and now it was my turn to ridicule the clueless. Hey, how else would they learn? Still, every so often a reader would point out, Hey, these hipsters may be silly and clueless, but at least theyre riding, or Hey, that bike sure seems ridiculous to me, but whatever gets people riding is a good thing. And Ill be darned if I didnt find myself agreeing with them.At the same time, the city too seemed to think that anything that got people riding was a good thing. They also picked up on this radical new idea that you should be able to ride a bike without getting run over, and so they fixed all the bridges and built these things called bike lanes. Seemingly overnight my cycling world was transformed from one characterized by resourcefulness and self-sufficiency into one in which people considered being able to ride around on a My Little Pony-themed bike with no brakes in a protected bike lane free from both ridicule and grievous bodily harm to be a reasonable expectation.But are we really better off for having so vilified the concept of the barrier to entry? Maybe some barriers is a good thing. I mean, what do we have to show for it, anyway? Bikes have to be electronic now, because you cant have anything thats distracting to new riders:Oh, they also have to have electric motors, so kids dont have to pedal too hard, and so parents dont have to wait for their kids:And why shouldnt some club team Strava wanker feel perfectly entitled to sit on the wheel of one of the worlds best professional cyclists instead of minding his freaking business?You know where all this has gotten us, this idea that everyone should participate and nothing should be hard and no place should be off limits to bikes? Its gotten us to THIS FREAKING THING:Maybe a $1,000 registration fee is exactly what we deserve.