Just after a rough general censous. Do you bother to bed your new pads in? If so, how do you do it?

I have always done it, no idea why i’m doing it but just think thats what your supposed to do…

I usally do a number of heavy braking stops until they go super hot. Is that the best way to do it or is it a better idea to do more progressive style braking?

Input welcome, as is “just ride and stop fannying about”.

Cheers

Are you racing or riding competitively?

If not, “just ride and stop fannying about”.

Never done it and never had an issue with pads.

Ride & stop, repeat a few times & then fanny about!!!! 😉

Yep I do race XC and ride other competitive events.

I have an event on Sunday and have just installed new pads and wont get chance to ride before then. Will I die a horrible death if I dont bed them in?

Just ride it.

A few heavy stops. Brakes go from meh to grrrr.

I never used to back when your choice was hope or EBC, as they would tend to be OK from the go.

With a lot of the new cheaper ones you need to warm them up under as controlled conditions as you can, hence the bedding in bit.

I have found that not only the cheaper, but the brand name pads can break off from the backing if I didn’t ‘bed’ them in. That’s not a scientific study by all means, but something I’ve noticed when posing the question of whether to bed them in or not myself.

I read an interesting article written by a technical person from a pad manufacturer that said bedding is essential for best performance and durability.
By getting the pads very hot under compression you are essentially performing the final stages of the pad material curing process.

Their advice was to find a hill. Ride down and brake hard then squirt the brake with cold water and repeat a few times.

I always do this now but have no evidence that it improves performance or durability other than my brakes (hope m4 tech evo with organic pads) work very well and pads seem to last ages even in the mud.

Andy

Does the compound make any difference to wether of not you bed them in? eg Organic, sintered etc?

Ive just intalled Shimano’s own XT pads (what compound are these?!) I’ve not had much luck with Superstar pads so far.

I do and it makes a huge difference.

Continue to do what you are doing and you’ll be fine. If you go straight into a race with unbedded pads they probably wont bed in and will worn down by the inevitable filth without ever getting hot enough.
For the sake of a few hard stops in the dry, why wouldn’t you?

I do. Rather than stopping, I slow so as to set up a layer of pad allthe way around the rotor. Pressure and heat together are what you need.

100% definitely worth it in my opinion.

10 or so quick stops and you can feel each one getting stronger

The event i have on Sunday is in Edale (for those of you that know the area). I guess I could park at the top near Mam Tor and then bed them down the huge road descent on the way…. Sounds like a plan to me

Only time I’ve not bedded in pads was at a wet Dusk ’til Dawn.

2 laps later and the new pads were down to the backing plate.

I always bed them in when I can – 10 to 20 x go as fast as I can, then stop as hard as I can seems to work.
As you’d expect, you can get the front brake a lot hotter, quicker than the back. So if replacing front and rear, I tend to do one set on the front, then stick those pads in the rear and do the second set.

A few sprint starts and sharp braking round the car park will have the same effect.

You simply need to get the pads hot without glazing them. So any short sharp braking from a reasonable speed to get temperatures up should work.

Don’t drag the brakes down a big hill as its easy to over step the line and glaze them.

Also as far as I know the water thing is just to tell whether the pads got hot enough ie it’ll sizzle or evaporate very quickly if the brakes are hot. Don’t think the water aids the bedding in?

Stumpy that is a genius plan! Why havent I done that before!

It’s definitely needed and makes a difference. I find it easiest to do it on the biggest road hill you can as it lets you do repeated hard brakings in a row building up speed easily inbetween then ride back up to the top and do it again until it seems done…and then do it all again for the back brake. It’s needed every time you change pads and is probably needed occasionally after riding in filthy conditions which will remove the pad material from the rotors.

This is about car brakes and quite wordy but it’s the same materials and concept

https://www.essexparts.com/learning-center/cat/brake-rotors/post/Bed-in

edit: you need to bed in the pads and the rotor so would need to put the rear pads and rotor on the front.

I found I have to do it on the rear brake as otherwise it will eat a set of pads in a few hours of riding

I take the new ones with me on a ride, climb up to the top of a hill, put the new ones in, and blast down braking a few times

I take the new ones with me on a ride, climb up to the top of a hill, put the new ones in, and blast down braking a few times

Yeah that’s called riding your bike.

I always bed mine in, ime there’s no question that it works better if you’re dealing with wet conditions. Not so important in the dry.

I had some weird experiences with kevlar pads, because I always used to just do hard stops til the brakes worked. Kevlars actually provide good power almost immediately, so I just did a stop or two then, er, stopped. Cue erratic braking and fast wear. So I tried again and bedded them in the same as I would a sintered pad, even though they don’t feel like they need it. Cue excellent braking and slower wear.

I always do it.

Sprint followed by hard breaking repeat a few times until the pads feel good.

Easiest way to bed in pads is to use some water and a flat stone / paving slab / or in my case I use a chisel sharpening stone.

Wet stone, rub brand new pad on stone in circular motion to create a nice black paste. Clean pad and stone with clean water and repeat – sorted.

If you’re bedding in a new disc too, use some damp wet and dry paper on it. Fold paper and hold onto disc either side and spin wheel a few times to just take the polish off the disc, then clean with water.

Little trick used by motorcycle endurance racing teams when there is insufficient practice time to bed in all the pads required 😉

The fallacy of the need for bedding in bike brakes has grown up thanks to a few technical articles on the web about material transfer to new discs on road cars, which get much hotter and have a bigger job to do.

Just get on it and ride.

nealy – Member

you need to bed in the pads and the rotor so would need to put the rear pads and rotor on the front.

I did wonder about this, but I haven’t noticed an issue with bedding-in on the front and then transferring the pads to the rear. It might not be quite as effective, but I haven’t noticed any real difference.

globalti – Member
The fallacy of the need for bedding in bike brakes has grown up thanks to a few technical articles on the web about material transfer to new discs on road cars, which get much hotter and have a bigger job to do.

Just get on it and ride.

Don’t really care about the technical articles or science behind it. It seems to make a large difference to pad life in my experience. That’s good enough for me, for the sake of 10 mins spent riding up & down the road.

Drac – Moderator
Yeah that’s called riding your bike.

The pads would be half gone if I put them on before getting to the big hill I use

globalti – Member

The fallacy of the need for bedding in bike brakes has grown up thanks to a few technical articles on the web

Nope, it grows from people doing it and seeing it works.

I do it, because I like braking hard. By ‘it’, I mean I accelerate hard, brake hard and repeat x5 / 10 times. Then I touch the disc, think “ow, I won’t do that next time” and ride. It’s mostly so that I know I’ve set the brakes up properly.

I asked someone about it who was involved in F1 and the manufacture of brake pads (among other components) for fast cars. He thought the idea of us lot bedding in pads was hilarious; the pressure and temps that the pads undergo during their manufacture are many orders above what we can create. He said that we might burn off a little residue from the factory but that that would happen anyway; there certainly wasn’t any long term benefit.

However, what would an automotive engineer at the top of his game know compared to the average STW’er 😉

The other two thing’s he said were 1. buy a red bike for 10% extra speed (that’s why Schumacher won for so long) 2. don’t wash your shorts before a race and always put your right sock on first or you’ll never win!

You don’t need to bed them in, but they last longer and brake better if you do.

My friend didn’t bed his in and they lasted half a day compared to the set he did bed in which lasted 3 days in the Alps.

It’s about getting an even layer of pad material on the rotors which increases friction and stops them being noisy which happens when the pad material is not even.

makecoldplayhistory – Member

I asked someone about it who was involved in F1 and the manufacture of brake pads (among other components) for fast cars. He thought the idea of us lot bedding in pads was hilarious; the pressure and temps that the pads undergo during their manufacture are many orders above what we can create. He said that we might burn off a little residue from the factory but that that would happen anyway; there certainly wasn’t any long term benefit.

And does he actually ride a bike and have any direct experience? We have a bunch of incredibly clever mechanical and process engineers, and a bunch of technicians who are all like shaven monkeys but know how to make the engineers’ ideas actually work 😉

Generally, just riding will be fine.

But if you are changing your pads and end up riding in really wet gravelly scottish mud, this can destroy your pads.

I replaced a set of pads in torridon in such conditions once, the pads lasted about 3 hours.

makecoldplayhistory – Member

I asked someone about it who was involved in F1 and the manufacture of brake pads (among other components) for fast cars. He thought the idea of us lot bedding in pads was hilarious; the pressure and temps that the pads undergo during their manufacture are many orders above what we can create. He said that we might burn off a little residue from the factory but that that would happen anyway; there certainly wasn’t any long term benefit.

However, what would an automotive engineer at the top of his game know compared to the average STW’er

Yep. Because F1 is just like riding a bike through a sand/grit slurry.

Don’t care what fancy pants automotive engineer at the top of his game knows. All I know is that when i bed pads in, they last many months and when I don’t bed them in they can last only a matter of hours – particularly in wet/gritty conditions.

I’m an engineer and have heard so called ‘experts’ on various topics say things with real conviction that turn out to be nonsense once you run a few experiments….

The pads would be half gone if I put them on before getting to the big hill I use

Try fitting them properly next time.

Nope, it grows from people doing it and seeing it works.

Never done it and never had an issue. Funny that.

pedal till 10mph, stop without feathering a few times and done!

Drac – Moderator

Never done it and never had an issue. Funny that.

And “not having an issue” means it all works identically, and you not having an issue means nobody else ever could.

Drac – Moderator

Never done it and never had an issue. Funny that.thats that settled! the oracle of no experience has spoken! 😆

True but it gets the same result of those who claim to bedding them in works which is what counts.

And “not having an issue” means it all works identically, and you not having an issue means nobody else ever could.

You can say that about bedding them in too. My point is it makes no difference.