For many years Kool Stop has been making brake pads for other companies, including Skyway, and now Ritchey. Eagle Claws are the first brake pad that gained major acceptance under their own name. These firm gripping pads, are made of a brake compound that works superbly under all conditions, but their best feature is the price. For the cost of Taiwan made replacement pads, you can buy really good brake pads made in USA. The steel stud is deeply imbedded in the pad, with a horizontal reinforcement, so it won't break off. The pad is 57mm long, 13.5mm high and has a rim contact area that is 53mm long with a 9.5mm height in a oblong shape.
The Eagle Claw is made for cantilever use in a non-threaded stud that is 7mm in diameter with a 22mm useful length. The Eagle Claw is also made with a 6mm x 1mm threaded steel stud with a 17mm useful length, for U-Brake or Road racing caliper use, and each pad comes with two steel washers (like the ones which come with the Aztec pads) and an aluminum mounting nut. The pad material feels less like rubber than it does a plastic compound, and that also is in keeping with the fact that the "rubber" part of the pad is available in Black, or Grey.
We found the pad compound to have an A/89 hardness. Eagle Claws are sold in pairs, and have a weight in the cantilever, non-threaded style of 47 grams per pair. The weight of a pair of threaded style pads with washer and nuts is just 43 grams.
Color - BK-GY $ Price in Catalog
At nearly the same moment that Ritchey Logic brake pads were introduced, Kool-Stop introduced the Eagle Claw 2. Kool-Stop manufactures them both. The Eagle 2 is a longer brake pad, at 63mm. It has a 15mm height with 63mm by 10mm rim contact area in an oblong shape. The Eagle 2 has a new feature in the flexible "plough tip". The mounting post is mounted off-center with the forward section 42mm long. At the end of this forward side is an 8mm section that is 8mm high and tucks inward toward the rim. With no support from the imbedded mounting post structure, this angled leading edge contacts the rim and pushes water and dirt off the rim for the remaining pad to make full contact.
The Eagle 2 though larger than the original Eagle Claw is lighter. The brake pad is molded around a Silver colored aluminum stud that also provides horizontal to the pad. Like all Kool-Stop pads, these feel as they are made of some type of plastic, rather than a rubber compound. The Eagle 2 is available with the pad in a Blue, Yellow, Grey or Black or Ritchey Red color with no difference other than color in the compound. We found the pad compound to have an A/89 hardness. Eagle Claws are sold in pairs, and have a weight in the cantilever, non-threaded style of 41 grams per pair.
Kool Stop also makes a threaded post version of the Eagle 2. They are all made in the state of Oregon, USA.
Color - B-BK-GY-R-Y $ Price in Catalog
