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  • It's brake pad insert replacement day. God I dread this day. Has anyone got a technique for getting these bastards in easily without any specialist tools?

    I've found the old pads flip out super easy if you get a flat head screw driver under an edge and just twist, but I've yet to figure out an easy way of getting the new ones in. The instructions imply they simply slide in. Lying bastards, they do not. I now know how old people feel looking at that shiny new un-openable jar of jam.

    I know I've got the right Kool Step inserts for the Campag holders, but it feels like I need more than the force of a hyenas bite to slide the damn things in. I've wrestled for over 5 minutes just to get as far as in the pic above, my fingers hurt already and I'm more knackered and red in the face than if I'd climbed an actual hill. And I've still got 3 pads to go after this one.

    I have tried in the past to aid the sliding in by using a flat head screw driver in the groove on the insert and push down hard to try and slide it in, but without a vice and just holding in your hands one slip leads to a gouge in the hand, as I know from painful experience.

    Looking back now makes me wonder if the great brakeless craze started simply by someone deciding it was less effort and less pain to just crash into stuff, rather than endure the pain, suffering and exhaustion of brake pad replacement day.

    If you've figured a easy way to do this, please share.

  • It might be the light, but is that pad upside down in the shoe? The curve of the pad looks opposite to the curve of the shoe.

    -Most pads and shoes I’ve come across do slide in relatively easily. I’ll have a think about what the issue is.

    Getting them out sometimes requires setting the pad against a bench edge and pushing the shoe off.

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