Originally Posted by
gugie
I've been sold on salmon pads ever since I moved to the PNW (where, of course, we get a bit more rain than you do). But they do seem to wear out faster. Just before starting out on our recent Neal Lerner tour of the PNW I put in new salmon pads. 4 days later they were pretty worn, I swapped them out at a bike shop with black ones. We didn't have rain the last 2 days to test them, but in dry weather they work just fine, and to my memory, last longer. This make sense, as black pads have carbon black in them, which is the typical tire additive to improve wear.
I tried the Kool Stop salmon Shimano inserts but did not understand the "wings" on the back. I could never get them adjusted to my satisfaction and found that the wear was exceptionally fast. For where I ride the hills in the rain in SW Ohio, I could go through 2 sets of these per year.