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As the title says really. I'm off to Les Arcs in the Summer I've read that sintered pads can overheat very quickly on the long descents, and that ceramic pads are a better choice. I've never had any drama's with sintered pads before, but haven't ridden descents anywhere near as long as what i'm expecting in the Alps.
Am i correct about the ceramic pads being a better choice?
Cheers
You'd be better off making sure your brakes are fully bled rather than worrying about which compound. Sintered do heat up quicker, but not massivly so IME. Brake less / stop more is the answer!
Bleed those brakes first, and should not be a problem. Just take lots of spares. I went through 2 sets (on the front) in one week with Trail Addiction.
I was told to take loads of spare pads on our first alps trip last year.
So took 4 pairs each....how many did we use?.....None!!!!
Both our bikes were using Organic Hope pads BTW.
If it's wet then sintered, if dry then organic. My sintered squealed like a banshee very quickly on downhill runs in a dry Les Arcs week last yr, put some organics in and no noise. The sintered performance didn't drop off but the noise was crazy loud.
well.. i'm surprised you didn't use more than one set 'nickegg'. But then, i do tend to over-commit on my riding speed into corners.
Mine were standard Hope Moto V2 pads. So a big brake to start with, but still wore them out.
I also took 4 sets to Les Arcs a couple of years backs and never actually wore out the original Hope pads.
Have used sintered pads in Verbier the last 2 years (bigger, steeper hills) and have yet to wear out a set in a week.
I've been out to Spain twice now and have only had to change one pair of SSC organic pads - and the originals were pretty dead to start with.
I think if it's dry the pads don't wear so quickly as they aren't abraded so much by all the grit, even though they have to do a lot more stopping compared to the UK.