I've got the new xt ice tech setup and my pads have got sod all bite on them. I'm assuming contamination is to blame donors shopping time. So, what are people using? Tend to ride natural xc at a reasonable pace, but not really mental, brakes cooking downhills apart from the odd trail centre. Whatever I get will be shimano branded as the last superstars stuf used was pants in comparison, just not sure what compound to get.
Resin in the dry, sintered in the wet (although I always forget to change so use sintered most of the time...plus the weather's always shite).
IMO don't bother with the finned jobs and make sure you do a good few fast stops to really bed them in (at least a dozen).
sintered all day everyday.
Depends where you ride. 2 hours in the peaks finished off some new, properly bedded in shimano resin pads for me! Defo dry weather only!
I just use superstar sintered all the time, great pads.
Resin is fine and lasts ages!
Kevlar for me. Reasonable compromise.
sintered - if you really need more power, put bigger rotors on!
resin in the dry, sintered in shit. bed them in by doing stoppies down a massive hill, make sure you get everything nice and hot.
i use Superstar Kevlar pads, one of the better pads i have had.
*waits for abuse*
Depends where you ride. In the Peak, Quantocks etc in wet conditions where it's abrasive, resin pads last hours, really. Sintered do a lot better imd, feel a little more wooden and tend to be noisier, but will actually last you more than one ride.
I've found the red Superstar kevlar pads to be a nice halfway house as far as power and feel go, but still wear fast in wet conditions in the Peak. If you ride somewhere non abrasive, pretty much anything will be fine.
For real maximum life, take your sintered pads and bake them for 30 minutes at 200?C before use...
Sintered in all conditions for me. Never had a shortage of braking power with 180 and 160mm rotors.
Shimano, Ashima & Superstar have all been good for me, but I'm convinced the key is to bed them in properly with a few hard stops before using them on the trail in anger. Superstars instructions also advised this but they also said to cool them down with water so that they sizzle. Looks cool and seems to do the trick too 🙂
+1 SS kevlar.
Clean your rotors with IPA (not beer..), bed the pads in properly, and they'll work a treat.
So, it looks like sintered for me then. Afan destroyed my pads in 15miles last time I was there.
For real maximum life, take your sintered pads and bake them for 30 minutes at 200?C before use...
interesting - why do we try to do lots of hard stops to get heat into them, when this is another way to do it? Or, should it be heat cycles that do the job properly?