oooops jesus i know these brakes are powerful but they have eaten my original sintered formula brake pads in a mere five rides….

all peak nasty grit, snow, wet, and more wet and snow and grit and mud…..but its where i always ride and never experienced this before….

ill be honest though i didnt even attempt to bed the pads in so it could and probably is down to that (but i very often dont do this)…..

i ran formula rx for about 7 months in spring/summer/autumn and used one pair of original organic and one set of superstar sintered (which still have life in them)

ive done a max of 5 rides with the ones and the rear pads are on the metal (literally) and the front ones are almost gone….

is this a characteristic of the ones, shit formula original pads, or the fact i havent bedded them in??

if any can suggest what other pads to use in the peak grit for the ones, so they last more than 3 weeks it would be really appreciated

Is this the set they came with? Mine did the same, used superstar ever since and they last far longer. I think they might put organic pads in them as standard?.

I did exactly the same, pads dead in one (wet welsh) ride. Replaced with sintered, last about 5 months.

phewwwwwwwww so they are organic that come with the ones? sure the shop i had them from said they were sintered?

that would make sense as id probably not expect much better life from organic in the recent weeks, but sintered usually last me a good old while

but yes to answer the question it is the original pads that came with the ones….

sounds good its not just me, i couldnt believe it i thought the brake had suddenly exploded, came to look straight away and the piston was further over one side and making an awful metal on metal sound on braking…

superstar sintered here i come!

One spin round Dalby ate my original pads – not even any flippin’ hills! Sintered spares went in. A couple of months later – including a week in the Lakes with big descents and shitty weather – and they’re just about holding up.

Pads in my MEGAs did the same – must be organic

bed ’em in properly = it will help

They have always said to bed this brake in slowly. So maybe not following the instructions is the problem.

Sorry to hijack the thread a bit with a new-to-discs question – but what is the best way to bed in new pads?

listen, they come with organic pads as standard,
you did well to get 5 rides out of them in such conditions
you-dont-need-to-bed-organic-pads-in… end of discussion!
go with sintered for winter crap,
theyre harder, so you will have to really pull on the lever
and youll probably think “crappy f*&%$ pads”
when its dry go back to organic
Merry Christmas! 🙂

had similar problems here

put some red superstar (are they organic?) in and after one ride the lever is almost touching the bar

bighendo
you-dont-need-to-bed-organic-pads-in… end of discussion!

Why not? Its more important with organic than sintered

Bedding in pads does 3 things. it heats and compresses the pads curing them. It conforms them to the disc and it deposits a thin layer of pad on the disc.

Its absolutely crucial to the performance of the brake and the longevity of the pad.

You need to get the brake hot while braking hard – pedal down a a hill making repeated stops – the brake needs to get to several hundred degreeC.

without this your pad remains soft and relies on abrasive friction not adherent friction thus wears out quickly.

some people and pad combinations will bed in easily in normal uses, some will not.

some conditions the boundary layer will wear out quicker than it can be replenished leading to excessive wear. Some riding styles and some brakes seem to be worse for this

5 rides is unnacceptable rate of pad wear – mine last thousands of miles

all brake and pad manufcturers reccomend beddingin pads.

Mine are lasting well in the filth where I live.

On my RX the stock pads I had lasted lasted six months and I’m now running sintered on them which seem just as good.

On my TH1 I’m about 4 months in with no problems so far.

As for bedding in pads – I instal my pads and then go out and give a dozen good stops from speed on a local hill to heat the pads up before I take them near the filth. Seems to work okay.

Yep, my pads were well bedded in. Made absolutely no difference whatsoever.

Yup bedding in essential, my unbedded in organic Formula pads lasted one wet ride in the Hertfordshire slop. Bedding them in extended organic pads life to a good 4 or 5 months. Fully bedded in Superstar sintered have lasted over a year.

To bed them in I ride down the hill I live on a few times stopping as hard as I can several times without locking, building up a lot of heat and then spray with water, a fairly satisfying sizzle and cloud of steam ensues.

cheers for the input – just had it confirmed the 2010/11 ones come with sintered as standard, so they were indeed sintered!

the thing is even though id run them without bedding in they felt absolutly fantastic for the first 4 rides…..the 5th ride again felt normal, then was going down a gulley/chute of draining water and when i got near the bottom thats when it changed and i knew something wasnt right with them….

so either the stock sintered pads dont like the wet, or a combo of rain/wet etc and not bedding them in caused it…

again im not really sure this is totally true about bedding in as ive not done it before on my rx’s and they have been used in exactly the same conditions and same places and still had pad life for ages on the original organics….

im a bit worried now apparantly those sintered stock formula pads are 25 quid a pair! oucch!

just to add into this a bit of background, i have NEVER ever worn pads to the metal before, i often hear stories on here about going through pads in weeks and laugh to myself and think how is this possible (smug mode), and here i am with the exact same problem!

ive got a spare brand new organic SS pad for the rear, and im gonna stick some relatively new organic formula rx ones in the front and see what happens!

got some SS sintered on order, they have flawlessy coped in peak grit/paste/mud/snow everythign possible before so im hoping SS will be the same on the ones!

I found pad life (superstar sintered which usually last ages) on my Formula K18 to be terrible as well, so maybe its just a formula thing. The pads on mine are pretty small which probably explains a lot of it.

Try breaking less 😉

i’ll try, ill bloody have to if they are gonna be gone every 5 rides, cant afford that sort of money ever 2 weeks!

just a quickie to all above are you the ones the old style ones or the newer 2010my ones?

Mine are 2010/11 – RX and TH1. Pads are the same and the levers etc look similar.

The stock pads that came with my 09 Mega’s lasted 6months and were only removed as they’d got a bit low and I was going to ride the La Varda trail that day.

The sintered Superstar pads i put in were awful, really noisy for some reason. I’m running Clarks ATM and they have been good so far, cheap aswell.

My original Formula pads didn’t last long. They are small compared to shimano etc and mine were organic, so were up against it from the start.

I’ve been using superstar ones since but I think I’ve placed my last superstar order, the last batch I ordered had the pad material so small the springs wouldn’t stay on without bending them inwards, plus the metal backing is slightly too small too and they rattle around in the caliper. You get what you pays for! The sintered ones last well, was pretty unimpressed with Kevlar.

The sintered I recently fitted to my RX are from disco brakes

http://www.discobrakes.com

No report on longevity yet but they fitted fine.

I’ve got 2009 The Ones and the superstar pads I use last ages. I’m quite heavy and ride a lots of Dh tracks on our Xc rides and they still work really well for a long time.