Giant Propel 2017 standard vs Fouriers rim brakes

[Nickldn]

Hi everyone,

I've just finished building up a 2017 Giant Propel. It came with Giant branded SLTI rim brakes (TRP manufactured), which aren't very good. They are aero v-brakes especially made for the Propel frame, really really light titanium, but not very powerful with carbon rims and swisstop pads, plus a real pain to keep in balance.

I'm jealous of my other half's Ultegra brakes now, they were a dream to set up and really good out on the road.

I heard Fouriers do brakes for the Propel frame, I'm really tempted to try them out, but they are expensive. Does anyone know if Fouriers v-brakes for the Propel are any better than Giant's 2017 titanium brakes? Would I notice the difference?

[tomycs]

I don't know how the Fouriers evolved in time, but on the first generation Propel (that I have) they were lifting the cable so that it wouldn't touch the tyre, I didn't find them to brake much better (not on carbon anyway). The Giant 2017 SLTi give you similar brake cable clearance to the Fouriers. The Propel brakes are grabby and a pain to use on wide rims by design, but on 23 or 25mm wide rims with the right compound you should be braking just fine.

[Nickldn]

Thanks for your reply. I've got 28mm wide rims, so that's definitely part of the problem.

I think modulation is quite good, opposite of grabby I suppose, but the brakes just lack power for my taste. I'd hate to rely on them for a fast descent.

Maybe the pads will bed in and it'll be fine, but for now I'm riding slowly! I guess the future is disk.....

[tomycs]

I had given up on using my 28mm wide Venns on the Propel. The wheels have poor braking anyway and the Propel brakes made it worse (compared to Shimano 6800 or R8000).

[dricked]

I had the Fouriers on my propel with profile design 58 twenty four wheels and had no desire for more braking power. I don’t have any switchbacks around here but a few fairly steep hills with a stop sign at the bottom. Coming to a stop from 70-75km/h was never an issue or a concern.

[IrrelevantD]

When I had my '15 Propel I ended up getting Fouriers brakes for it so that I could run 25c tires and because of the claimed better brake performance. I bought the forged ones, not the CNC due to cost.

My personal findings were that yes, the Fouriers brake performance was better than the TRPs that came with the bike in both power and modulation. That being said, they still lacked the stopping power of calipers, but that wasn't a huge issue where I live because it's fairly very flat.

[Nickldn]

Giant supposedly improved the standard Propel brakes in 2015-16 after a lot of criticism, these improvements should have made Fouriers redundant. Their Sunweb team used Fouriers back then too, not sure what brakes they used in 2016 and 2017 seasons though.

Does anyone know if the Fouriers will work nicely with 28mm wide rims? If so I'm gonna get them.

Could take my bike to a Giant store to ask for advice, but not sure if they'd be able to help much. Such a shame the Propel frameset won't accommodate Ultegra direct mount brakes, that would be a dream!

[tomycs]

It's more of a problem w. the design of the frame. The way the brake blocks enter the fork and the seat stays makes it difficult to open the brakes as much as you would need for wide rims.

[sharkman]

I have the Fouriers and they are up to ultegra standard (and not expensive too)

The stock pads are not good but i switched to enve pads which improved stopping power.
I use them with enve 4.5 which aren’t. The smallest rims

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[Nickldn]

I've been fiddling with my brake noodles this afternoon and seem to have got the brakes working a bit better.

There are 2 noodle holes on the Propel brakes, with slightly different depths (see photo), I moved the noodle to the other hole and the brakes now have less travel and cable pull has been reduced. They feel a bit more sure-footed now, with better stopping power (I can ride downhill yay!).

The Fouriers brakes have this feature too, for easily swapping between training and race wheels. Trouble is there is absolutely no documentation on the Giant website available about the these brakes, I can only find a service bulletin from 2014 about setting up the original Propel v-brakes.

I have one more problem to solve now. The pads aren't quite square with the rims when the brakes are on, please see photo. I guess this is because the rims are too wide for the calipers, it's not the end of the world, but I think it will probably compromise braking a bit until the pads wear in. Ultegra pad holders can be rotated a bit to prevent this, but the TRP holders aren't quite as good.

Can anyone suggest if it's possible to adjust the pads, I don't want to buy new pad holders!

[JScycle]

I've been fiddling with my brake noodles this afternoon and seem to have got the brakes working a bit better.

There are 2 noodle holes on the Propel brakes, with slightly different depths (see photo), I moved the noodle to the other hole and the brakes now have less travel and cable pull has been reduced. They feel a bit more sure-footed now, with better stopping power (I can ride downhill yay!).

The Fouriers brakes have this feature too, for easily swapping between training and race wheels. Trouble is there is absolutely no documentation on the Giant website available about the these brakes, I can only find a service bulletin from 2014 about setting up the original Propel v-brakes.

I have one more problem to solve now. The pads aren't quite square with the rims when the brakes are on, please see photo. I guess this is because the rims are too wide for the calipers, it's not the end of the world, but I think it will probably compromise braking a bit until the pads wear in. Ultegra pad holders can be rotated a bit to prevent this, but the TRP holders aren't quite as good.

Can anyone suggest if it's possible to adjust the pads, I don't want to buy new pad holders!

Swisstop make pads that have are slimmer therefore acting like a worn out pad from new. Maybe you could try those

[IrrelevantD]

Giant supposedly improved the standard Propel brakes in 2015-16 after a lot of criticism, these improvements should have made Fouriers redundant. Their Sunweb team used Fouriers back then too, not sure what brakes they used in 2016 and 2017 seasons though.

Does anyone know if the Fouriers will work nicely with 28mm wide rims? If so I'm gonna get them.

Could take my bike to a Giant store to ask for advice, but not sure if they'd be able to help much. Such a shame the Propel frameset won't accommodate Ultegra direct mount brakes, that would be a dream!

If I remember correctly, the "upgraded" brakes in '15 only came on the SL with the integrated seatpost. They didn't make it to the lower models. That being said, the brakes you posted in your pics look different than the ones that came with mine, so you very well may be right on the Fouriers being redundant at this point. The ones that game on the Advanced models back in '15, you couldn't run a 25c tire in the rear because the tire would rub on the brake cable. That was 1/2 the reason I got rid of the stock brakes. I'm going to assume that by lengthening the arms, they resolved some of the power and modulation issues as well.

As for your more recent question about the angle of the pads, you should be able to adjust the angle as with any other pad holders unless they changed the design in the last few years. What I always did was loosen the bolt for the holders, squeeze the brakes and hold them while I adjusted the alignment with the rim; then tighten them just a little to hold them in place while I get a credit card/guitar pick to set the toe in.

[Nickldn]

Yes you're absolutely right, I have the frame with the integrated seat post. It explains why the brakes are the upgraded model.

According to the bike manual the brakes work with 28mm rims, not sure how though. There's plenty of clearance for 25mm tyres so it's the width of the rim that's an issue. I've tried to undo the bolt holding the pad, squeeze the brake and then move the pad square with the rim. It just doesn't seem to twist down enough though. The manual suggests no concave washers can be used to mount the pad holders to the brake arm, but they won't stay in one place with no washer.

It's close, but not quite there, am I just not forcing them down enough? Maybe the swisstop pads are wider than normal after all.