Sadly, my Ride2Work bike came with these nasty brakes and I think I should have some spare pads to hand for when the current ones wear out.

I see there is a choice of regular, kevlar or sintered. I assume regular will disappear quite rapidly (causing little or no damage to the rotor, but probably not stop brilliantly), sintered (quick look on Ask Jeeves suggests that these have bits of metal in them) will probably last longest, stop best, but cause max damage to the rotor, and kevlar ? why would I want kevlar, I know it stops bullets, knives and punctures but not sure why I might want it in brake pads.

So, STW collective, please tell me which brake pads I need. To assist, this bike is only used for commuting on road.

I thought they were quite highly regarded for a ‘budget’ disk brake? I have a freind who, after his old Hope Mini’s died, replaced them with some M575 and loves them.

Anyway, I always run sintered with my XT’s and they have been great, and last quite a while (although it has been said I use other riders to stop instead of my brakes)

I’ve never seen a damaged rotor before from pad wear

They rattle – I hate rattling (plus I wholeheartedly dislike hydraulic brakes).

Sintered eh? Yes, that’s what I use on some of my other bikes, just wanted some feedback on the relative merits of the various options.

Rotor damage; just thinking about the discs on my car brakes – last service the garage said they were scored. If it happens to a car, could it happen to a bicycle?

Running sintered in my 575’s with no rotor damage. Mine don’t rattle, are all your mounting screws tight???

Sintered are the only pads that last in the muck around our way.

Yes, have checked all mounting bolts, all fine. The pads are mounted via a split pin. I think that’s why they rattle.

I got the bike from Evans (! – I had to, work’s cycle to work scheme was via them) – they tell me that “they all do it” and “there’s nothing [you] can do about it”.

I haven’t had a proper look at them but I might try bending the spring out a bit more so it’s springier, maybe that will keep them still.

regular for summer, better braking, less noise, sintered for shit weather, less braking power, maybe will squeal a bit, neither will damage your rotor!

Bend the split pin out a bit at the end to stop it rattling.