Replacing worn-out brake blocks is easier than it used to be, as anyone who has tried installing new blocks in old-time Campagnolo Record chromed steel shoes will testify.

Nevertheless, it can still be an annoying job, thanks either to new blocks that are slightly too big to slide easily into the shoes or, alternatively, to those small screws that retain the blocks and prevent them sliding out rearwards. Perhaps they are there as some kind of fall-back in case the shoes are inadvertently fitted with the open end facing forwards…

Anyway, if a retaining screw should happen to be seized in place, the block won’t come out the way the maker intended. Part of the trouble is that these screws almost always have a 2mm Allen key head and, since a 2mm Allen key can probably manage about two inch-ounces of torque before rounding off, even the lightest touch of corrosion can make removal impossible using said 2mm key.

The solution is obvious: use a hacksaw to cut a slot across the head of the screw and use an old-school flat screwdriver to turn the screw. This also makes tightening the screw afterwards both simple and secure.

The question, of course, is why the screw does not have a slotted head in the first place. My guess is that a slot head screw is somehow seen by both consumers and manufacturers as cheap and low-tech with no place on a high-end lightweight cycle. They are still seen on less expensive components such as brake calipers doing adjustment duty but even here often have a supplementary slot cut perpendicular to make a combined Phillips/slot head.

Fact is, the good old, plain old slotted screw still has much to offer in the era of miniscule Allen keys and here is one application where it is the better option. Perhaps best of all is that it is a design ideally suited to DIY manufacture.