in the wet pad wear can be quite noticeable on cable systems, but you must adjust for it AT THE CALIPER not the cable adjustment.

all the cable adjuster is there for is initial setup and accommodating the cable/outer bedding in NOT pad wear.

if you do adjust at the cable you’re giving away mechanical advantage.

i’ve had hydro brakes go through a set of pads in two rides when the conditions have been bad. hydros are better at dealing with this, though often you’ll still find the bite point changes at the lever under those conditions. and then the **** things don’t stay fully back out when you put new pads in, so you end up starting the next ride with new pads climbing with the brakes on….

like my bb7s i do.

user error.

I adjusted the cable adjuster slightly and this was enough to get some purchase, but after another 5 miles, there was another complete failure

[quote]all the cable adjuster is there for is initial setup and accommodating the cable/outer bedding in NOT pad wear.[/quote]Yeh – definitely
@ OP: on avids (and I suspect all others), because the pads don’t self-adjust for bite point like hydraulics do, you have to periodically move them in a bit as they wear.
You could achieve soemting like this by using the cable adjusters but you’re really just moving the actuating arm on the caliper part way through its travel before you even touch the brake on the bars. EVentually that results in there not being enough caliper arm movement avaiable to push pads to the rotor.
(that’s why people are asking about how much lever travel you were using before the failure)

There should be adjustment mechanism (red dials on BB7s) on the caliper for proper adjustment of pad-rotor gaps

Also agre with the comment up there that your rear probably failed a while before the front, but wasn’t a big deal while the front was still OK

Pad wear after 10 weeks? Yes, definitely possible.

a consistently wet (with dirty gritty roads) Festive 500 did for mine in a week, and I had a similar ‘failure’ to the OP’s, and as explained above. Unadjusted-for wear meant the pads could move so far that the caliper arm had gone beyond applying any meaningful force to the pads (the closer the arm gets to the cable mount the shorter the effective lever, the less the mechanical advantage). Net result a complete “brake failure” whilst still having some pad friction material left, and nothing broken or actually failed within the caliper.

In short, user error/neglect for both me and the OP. High mileages in crap conditions means nearly daily adjustment for mechanical discs.

I went through half a set of sintered pads halfway though one 50min race last sunday, to the point I switched bikes at 30 mins to have the lever pull where i wanted it. Wettest CX season I cam remember!

I’m in the pad wear camp, my BB7’s could do a set of pads in a couple of rides down to virtually nothing on the stopping power. As has been said they don’t self just so you do have to keep and eye on them, but even so I found they would only last so long.

Similar issue to you in the way home from a ride pulled brakes and kept going towards a round about! 😯 foot down and luckily I stopped!!

Got a hope system later that week! Now really reliable, and the pads last much longer. The advantage being I didn’t need to change my running gear as my preferred stuff is Campag.

I can’t see the pads being worn out in such a short time unless racing or in similarly intensive and arduous dirty gritty conditions.

Also you’d know they were wearing by gradually increasing lever travel and gradually worse brake power , a sudden failure suggests somethings not screwed in tight enough or somethings broken.

This is essentially a brand new bike don’t forget, with the owner apparently never doing any adjustments.

Brand new bikes do need fettling though.
Combine some cable stretch with the outers settling into their ferrules, the pads wearing even if only slightly and there’s plenty of scope for the brake to come to the end of its travel before stopping the bike. Plus we don’t know how well they were adjusted out of the box.
Either way, there’s not enough information from the op to be sure but there is scope for it to be down to adjustment, wear or incorrect fitting.
Scary stuff, but it just goes to show that it pays to have a good understanding of the parts fitted to your bike, and the need to check them, especially brakes!

in the wet pad wear can be quite noticeable on cable systems, but you must adjust for it AT THE CALIPER not the cable adjustment.
all the cable adjuster is there for is initial setup and accommodating the cable/outer bedding in NOT pad wear.
if you do adjust at the cable you’re giving away mechanical advantage.

Not quite right. The necessary adjustment for pad wear depends on the system. Avids are designed such that it requires adjustment of the piston wheels, but Spyres are designed such that it is adjusted with a cable barrel.

And the reason for not adjusting for pad wear on an Avid by adjusting the cable is AIUI not that you don’t lose mechanical advantage (AFAIK you don’t, and a falling-advantage design would seem rather odd), it’s so that you don’t risk hitting a hard stop and being unable to apply more force.

Not so , Spyres are adjusted by an allen adjuster key on each side of the caliper , each one winds one of the pads in or out .

Spyres are designed such that it is adjusted with a cable barrel.

I’ve found with mine that you can get away with using the barrel to adjust for wear (on a long muddy ride, say), but you get much better performance if you sort it out with the pad adjusters (3mm allen key). Dunno why, that’s just my experience of them. Great brakes if set up right, can be a bit horrible if not. Quite easy to bugger up if you’re not mechanically minded too I suspect…

Spyres are designed such that it is adjusted with a cable barrel.

Nope.

I’m pretty damn sure the instructions on mine said adjust for pad wear with the barrel. Willing to stand corrected but I’ve chucked the paperwork away now.

Edit: Aye, here we are: “Thread the barrel adjuster out to take up cable slack or compensate for pad wear.”

https://www.trpbrakes.com/userfiles/file/SPYRE_Final_053113%281%29.pdf

(To be fair the next line says you can use the outboard pad adjuster, too, but unsurprisingly you need to then re-align the caliper.)

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8WrWis_JGs[/video]

I’m pretty damn sure the instructions on mine said adjust for pad wear with the barrel

I’m 99.9% certain they say NOT to adjust them using cable tension.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/trp-spyre-replacement-pads

Suspect they were organic or similar pads, which is this weather will last minutes rather than ride……..
Should be sintered in these conditions

Read half way down about the compound they supply.

https://www.trpbrakes.com/category.php?productid=1199&catid=206

Having read the instructions for the Spyres they give the option of using EITHER the barrel adjuster or using the pad adjusters.
I found using cable tension to adjust for pad wear didn’t work very well.

Yeah, I can believe it’s not quite the same as adjusting the pistons. Easier, though 🙂

Bought a bike from Wheelies a couple of years back, had the mechanical discs upgraded.

First time I ever had clipless pedals as well, riding around my housing estate, first go on the bike, pedalled up the small hill, and rolled down the road, pulled the brakes on coming up to the junction, to have them pull through, with me clipped in for the first time.

Managed to avoid being hit by my neighbour, and bounce onto the grass verge.

Friday afternoon bike.

Coming from a shop mechanics point of view
at this 10week point have you had a first free service on the bike? At this point cable strech should be adjusted and brakes reset
how often to you do a bolt check on the bike?
how many times in this 10 weeks have you used you brakes? (Probably more than you think)
Id have a word with original retailer or local shop if was an online store and have them inspect the bike.
it seems odd that both would go at the same time

First time I ever had clipless pedals as well, riding around my housing estate, first go on the bike, pedalled up the small hill, and rolled down the road, pulled the brakes on coming up to the junction, to have them pull through, with me clipped in for the first time.

Very subconsciously I end up pulling the brakes as I leave the house these days just to check though I do live on top of a hill…

For the OP however when things like brakes start to go wrong stop and check 🙂

This is essentially a brand new bike don’t forget, with the owner apparently never doing any adjustments

10 weeks old, so depends hugely on rider mileage and conditions. I’m doing ~150 miles a week (commuting + recreational); the pads had lasted the best part of a year with minimal adjustment, then a wet December killed them in short order.

Could be pad wear depending on conditions.
He says mud and the pads in Spyres don’t last long.
Rode my TCX for a few months and then one muddy training session in October killed the pads in an hour!
Rode home with no brakes!
Swapped to Swiss Stop sintered and no issues since.
Max