A very wet ride in the Surrey Hills this morning resulted in brake fade at the end. Got home and found that my fresh set of uberbike sintered pads where all but worn down to the flat. I’m not heavy on braking and most of the ride today didn’t require a lot of braking. I’ve used a part worn set of the same pads in the Alps for 3 days and still had plenty left in them. Have I just had a dodgy set or had the grit really done them in after only 15 miles? Anyone had similar? Anything else I should be checking which may have contributed to the excessive wear?
Did you take out the correct bike?
That’s pretty extreme, front and rears at the same time? That would discount a mechanical issue.
I’ve done a set in morning on the shittiest day EVA in the Alps when I was new to it and dragging at lot.
That doesn't sound right. On my last bike with Guide RS I went from September through to May with Uberbike Sintered pads and they still had plenty left on them. That included a bpw uplift day and a FOD uplift day too. Although I had a couple of months off thenbike after a shoulder operation.
Just put Uberbike Sintered on my new bike after wearing the standard organics out between May and now. I have to say the organics were doing ok until Windhill Bike Park a few weeks ago - I think the surface must be very abrasive there as when I started the pads looked ok, but by the end of the day my back brakes were basically down to the backing plates.
I’m light in my bikes pads mostly but have several times killed fresh pads at cwn carn. I’d always put I’d down to not bedding them in first as I’ve always used hopes own pads. But it could just be a random faulty set I surpose
Cold, wet & gritty conditions?
Sounds a bit like the conditions some years at the strathpuffer that would eat a set up pads in a 7 mile lap.
Doesn't sound too unexpected to me...today was a very wet day here in the SH so, if you were riding the trails that are in top shitty condition (and not just cruising the bw & fire roads), id wouldn't be surprised at all particularly if you hadn't managed to get any heat up to bed them in.
Learnt this lesson plenty over the years of SH winter riding... personally ive given up now and stick with either the well draining trails or the BW/fire roads
Oh yes it's possible.
Been riding swinley / sh for years and the grit eats pads for breakfast lunch and dinner. Sintered help.... A little.... Also so does a really good bed in (hardening the outer layer of pad material).
The ginge in swinley is horrible this time of year. This is across 5 bikes with a mix of xt, rs, deore, slx brake setups. I can't however say if hope or anyother brake brand would fair any better (possibly if there is more pad to disc clearance)
One think I tend to do in the wet grit is aim for maximum lever throw and push pads wide apart... Also make sure caliper is dead centred to the disc that prevent one side rubbing more than the other. I tend to find even on perfectly set up brakes, the outer wears a bit more on the front (due to wheel flex) and the inner on the rear (torque from chain twisting rear triangle a tad I suspect).
I've killed a set in a decent before. It was wet and they were new so not able to bed them properly. I now carry a couple of part worn sets for on trail spares.
not able to bed them properly
interesting!
Bed in that important.
Bed in for good braking is important - but didn't know that it's so important for the lifetime of the pads.
Helpful information (always use low cost pads as well - but never had these problems). Pure luck then.
😉
Jeez! What are you guys doing?
Or what am I not doing?!
Brake pads tend to last me a year or So!
^ Riding 4/5 times a week through basically the world's best grinding paste known to man (aka the wet ginge at swinley)
Never seems to have the same pad wear at all in any of the Welsh trail centres / or Lake District so in my case.... It's definately localised to the crap I ride in but it's either suffer pad wear or not ride (or brake!) so just stock up on 4 packs and rotate pads as much as possible.
Bed in is really important for pad life (especially on organics). The bed in heat hardens the pad face reducing wear significantly.
It's not just a question of mud/wet/dry.
If you have the right kind of gritty soil and the right amount of water, you can end up with a film of water sitting between pad and disk the whole time, so all your braking efforts produce a grinding sound which can kill pads in no time. I've had pads die in two rides like this. But if it's not quite wet enough, or the mud is not the right kind, it won't happen.
Getting them hot and bedded in with a few hard stops on the road does seem to extend pad life considerably...in the summer they might get bedded in with normal offroad riding, but plugging through mud and crap at low speed will not suffice and I have had the odd set just fall to bits within a couple of rides.
Interesting. Was a proper fresh set of pads so maybe the bedding in thing is the answer. I ride Swinley a lot so my pads can have a hard life but tend to last well, hence my shock at going through a set so quick. Last wet ride at Swinley killed the last set of rears but they’d had a hard life.
This is why I like shimano brakes because of their pad to disc clearance, now if they did spare parts then they would be unmatched in my opinion.
Resin pads I've worn out both sets in January on an Evans ride it event
Snow, grit, rivers, moorland mud very easy imho, sintered should just howl like a banshee in those conditions
Have gone through 3 complete sets in one particularly minging ride at Afan a few years ago! The whole trail was just a river so the bike got covered in gritty crap all day constantly. Doing the W2 from the Afan centre I'd gone through the first set (a ride old!) By the time I got to Glyncorrwg, the spare set was gone by the time I got back to Y Wal and the extra set I'd thankfully picked up a Skyline Cycles was gone by the time i got to the last descent! Needed new discs by then as I got back down on the backing plates, was close to getting down to the piston on the rear 😯
That was with a set of Juicy 3's and cheap sintered pads, never known brakes to wear so fast. The replacement Hope X2's were so much better in every way!
Been there, done that. SH very, very wet ride. My mates bike ate both sets of pads, and mine was not far behind. Also done similar in Scotland on one ride in the Pentlands. Sometimes pads last forever, yet can die on a single, gritty wet ride. Both times it happened to me, the day was beyond wet and we were essentially riding through sandy streams.
This is an odd one, I'd contact Uberbike and ask for their thoughts.
People are quick to say "oh you didn't bed them in" but if you're riding properly they should be bedded in quickly anyway.
Only time I had this was a pair of Formula The One brakes which would eat a pair of pads a day when I was out in the Alps. Pretty sure that was a peculiarity of those brakes.
Personally I use Uberbike resin and sintered pads (depending on stock) and they both seem to last a good while.
Excess post Christmas weight?
Conditions were shocking, worst I have ridden in for a long time. Very very wet with lots of deep puddles. My shoes are going to need a week to dry out. I didn’t do a lot of braking so I guess there was just a lot of rubbing due to dirt in the calipers. Shimano M8000 XT Brakes btw:
People are quick to say "oh you didn't bed them in" but if you're riding properly they should be bedded in quickly anyway.
successive hard stops from speed in clean/dry conditions?
doesnt resemble uk riding 90+% of the time.