Can anyone advise on the correct procedure for bedding in new pads. Until recently I have been using only organic pads on my specialised hard rock pro.
I have just had to replace the pads on my orange alpine (formula oros) and I have replaced these with sintered.
I have also just bought a set of kevlar pads for both bikes to try these out.

I am sure that like everything there will be specific techniques for bedding in the various types (23 runs at 5mph then 17 runs as 10 mph blah blah blah…). Is this really important or can you stop being so fussy and just fit em and ride em?

def worth bedding in.
I wouldn’t worry about exact bedding in procedures, just get them blimmin hot. ride around for a couple of minutes dragging the brake. Then do 4 or 5 sprints, braking hard to a stop while still pedalling (doing this down a hill is good)
Once they’ve bedded in, you’ll feel the difference in braking modulation immediately.

Or buy the BBB pads that are pre-bedded.

Or just ride your bike? Unless you fit new pads the morning of a DH race whats the point?
The first couple of miles of riding will bed them in just fine.

ride down steep hill fast as you can brake hard as you can untill almost stopped but not quite . your nose will tell you when the job is done !!! silverfish
it makes the pads last longer if you bed them in and also improves their feel apparently !

Not always ritchie. depends on riding style and a load of other factors

A load of discussion here

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/bedding-in-pads-is-this-bollox

I personally like my pads to last more than 1 muddy ride, so I tend to get them nice and hot by doing 4 or 5 hard stops from 20mph+ and repeating. This shapes the pads to the disc surface and deposits a small layer of pad material on the disc.

ok, I get it. Need to get them hot to cure. Superstar also state that after getting them hot you need to cool them down with water.
I’ll give that a go.

Cheers

Careful with rapid cooling. It can make a mess of your rotors.

I always do the get them hot to bed in by doing the emergency stop thing several times, however, I am intrigued as to why you do the opposite when replacing car pads as they always advise gentle braking for the first 500 miles.

+1 for just riding around as normal. They’ll bed in themselves.

Votchy – The car thing is probably for normal road pads on a car. A car easily generates a lot of heat unlike a mountain bike. It is easy to set new road pads on fire on a car, I know as I have done it when I was a teenager and was stood looking at them and wondering how to put them out! 😆

Just to confuse the issue…

What do you guys do when you buy a new bike or new brakes?

Do you spend time bedding them in or do you just ride the bike?

I’m in the just ride the bike camp…whats the worst that can happen?

I rode around I circles, with the brakes half on, till I got the callipers warm/hotish, then went for a ride…

Avid said hat I should get up to speed then brake hard (no skidding though) – repeat about 10 times, then again at a higher speed. Above method seemed more effective and less time consuming 🙂

EDIT: Do you spend time bedding them in or do you just ride the bike?

Brakes feel underpowered when the pads aren’t bedded in IMO

‘m in the just ride the bike camp…whats the worst that can happen?

Your brake pads disappear in a few miles

Did some last night. Locked out fork; rode to top of long road hill and down starting at ~25 mph then slightly dragging rear brake to slow. And then near the bottom sped up again before progressively pulsing to stop; result = nice hot brakes. Repeated for the front brake.

It got me off the sofa

I normally bed in. Had some pads die far too quickly when the weather was sub zero and I did a half arsed bed-in. I’m now tempted to get a bikes worth of new pads. Only bed the fronts in, then swap one pad only with the rear. Then I’d have one bedded against a virgin pad in the same caliper front and rear. Then go for a wet ride in the peaks and see what happens.

Anyone know any bike mags that perhaps could do a test/article on this issue?

I’m in the just ride the bike camp…whats the worst that can happen?

Some middle aged men will disagree with you on a mountain bike forum. Though admittedly, that is the worst thing that could ever happen, ever.

Careful with rapid cooling. It can make a mess of your rotors.

This is a fact.

Had both my rotors explode simultaneously while riding through a stream at the bottom of an alpine decent. I’m still picking shards of metal out of my eyeballs two years later. The doctor who treated me on the scene said I was lucky to be alive.

I’m lucky that my ride from home includes a tarmac/cobble path into the valley then a sharp climb then another roll down a steep road. Works fine to bed in my pads. But I always bed them in one way or another after killing pads in a fairly short ride one autumn. No proof they wouldn’t have been shagged from the ride if they’d been bedded in but was definitely the shortest lifespan for any pads I’ve had.

sofatester – Member

This is a fact. Had both my rotors explode simultaneously while riding through a stream at the bottom of an alpine decent. I’m still picking shards of metal out of my eyeballs two years later. The doctor who treated me on the scene said I was lucky to be alive.
😯

*sofatest in impromptu IED shocker*

😯
😯

exploding discs aside 😀 ….

Chucking cold water over hot brakes/pads & rotors is a daft idea. At the least the rotors may distort or the pad material may detach from the metal backplates 😯

If it’s such a bad idea, why do manufactures recommend doing it? I done it on my Avids and had no warping, exploding or any other ings.

there is a technique to maximise the pad performance but it’s not essential, as the ‘just ride the bike’ crew will no doubt try and argue, and many people don’t really care too much about such things anyway.

But if you do care… 🙄 the point of bedding in is actually to deposit a thin layer of pad material onto the disc, so firstly you need a very clean rotor – use IPA and some kitchen roll. Then ride down a slight decline with the brake on, gradually increasing pressure and thus generating heat in the pad and disc. At the end increase lever pressure, then release and allow the disc to cool. Repeat the procedure again, about four times, each time allowing the disc to cool. This will repeatedly leave layers of pad material on the disc surface. On mtbs this is possibly less crucial than, say, on racing motorbikes.

I normally lick my rotors to cool them down.