Brake pads recommendations

Hi, this is my first post on here so please be kind i have been running a nuke proof mega for about 1 month with shimano Xt brakes, i was out at the weekend and front brake just vanished i was on the road going slow so it wasnt a bad situation, but on closer inspection i noticed the compound had come off the back plate the brake pad is Shimano N03a, so im looking for a new set of brake pads if anyone can recommend or should i just replace with the same  i dont want to pay crazy money for them,

I’ve been impressed with the Galfer pads I’ve recently installed in my TRP Slate Evo’s (they use Shimano pads)

Red and green  – front/back, can’t remember which without searching

Way better than the stock pads

Oh and welcome to the asylum 🙂

Galfer

Galfer. Red it it’s muddy, green if it’s dry or you’re off to the alps

Galfer here too, as above greens in Summer and Reds in Winter.Not the cheapest. But excellent.

Just be aware that some of the shimano disc (ice tech) have a thin layer of stainless steel and are ‘organic’ pad use only, So a better performing sintered pads, will eat though them (not overnight) & degrade the them. I personally don’t go for cheap pads, as you want them to work well, so why would you expect a cheap pad to be any good?

CL brake pads is always my recomendation

Never tried Galfer but they make motorbike, car pads?

For me it has always been disco brakes or uberbike pads. Worth signing up to uberbikes mailing list as they regularly send out 20% off vouchers. You can then keep a stock. Obviously no use this time.

In the UK I tend to run sintered all the time as its more likely to be wet/muddy and a long descent is a few minutes.

Great thanks for the Information i will try Galfer,

I recently brought some Galfers in an attempt to quieten a noisy brake which was running eBay cheapos. There was no improvement in either noise or braking. To be fair my other bike has Galfers and they work well so it may be a disc problem but Galfers are not necessarily a magic bullet.

Galfer green/pro are very good, but Trickstuff power are even better.

https://www.trickstuff.com/en/brake-parts-and-tools/brake-pads/power

see here for the model to fit your brakes https://d2a13k6araex7u.cloudfront.net/trickstuff/produkte/bremskomponenten-und-tools/bremsbelaege/Poster_Bremsbelagstabelle_20240228.pdf

Thank you for posting! Just packing for a day at BPW, not packed spares yet! Hope I’ve got some… They’ll be Uberbike race matrix if they are any in the drawer.

Good news: got spare pads and packed them. Less welcome news: I’ve got 6 pairs of BB7 pads. Haven’t even got any fitted anymore. Fingers must have slipped doing a bulk order.

+1 Galfer.

Black for commuter

Green for best

To buck the trend, I’ve tried most brake pads over the years, and these days pretty much only ever buy plain vanilla OEM pads.  You might pay a bit more, but they’ll fit, they’ll come with all the bits that you’ll need (new pins, spring retainers, etc) and you’ll more likely than not end up with a quality controlled product.

We have bought Uberbike for many a year – I run the Kevlar pads, eldest likes the RaceMatrix, our do it all bikes have either Clarks or Uberbike organic.

I need to re-order and new bikes mean I have a real variety of pads needed.. hmm…

Galfer reds have been the best mix for me. The Galfer greens are ok, but I find the feel sometimes a bit more inconsistent. Hated uberbike race matrix but that was maybe 5 years ago I last tried them.

Galfer purples get good reviews but haven’t tried yet.

Used Uber RaceMatrix on all my (and the families) bikes for the last few years – never had a problem once.  Might give the Galfers a try next time though

It’s a while since I used em but I loved racematrix in the UK, lovely feel and feedback, not just good power but easy to use- that’s how I want brakes to feel, I don’t want BOOM wall hitting power, I want the amount of power I asked for delivered easily. But then we went out to the alps and both sets completely shat the bed on day one and got thrown in the bin before they killed me. A shame though.

Galfer are really good, and also very consistent. But so damn expensive, I just didn’t feel like it was worth it, you just don’t need to spent that much to have great brakes (some brakes really do benefit from superior pads, but the answer to that is that the brakes suck imo… decent braking is a completely solved problem, has been for over a decade, but companies still keep finding new ways to make brakes that suck. But for me by definition a good brake will do a good job with any decent pads)

These days I’m using Bikein ceramics from aliexpress, they cost a bit less than £1 an end and tbf they just work really well. Not especially longlived or super powered, and they can be a bit noisy but I’ve used them through a few scottish winters now and also uplift weeks, the megavalanche, plus endless trailcentre laps and tweed valley offpistes in all weathers. I’ve stuck with them not because they’re cheap but because they work, all the time. Honestly I’d be surprised if you can’t spend £10 an end for the exact same pad with a faux-UK brand on it.

@op are you sure the compound had come away Vs been worn away till you were braking on the backing plate? Detaching compound is not something you hear levelled at Shimano pads, heard it plenty of times about other (mostly cheaper) brands but not Shimano.

FWIW I stick to the OEM pads but then I also don’t wear pads out very quickly.

SwissStop, Galfer or Trickstuff. SRAM sintered OE are very good too.

I don’t think I’ve ever used one of the budget brands & had a positive experience.

@Northwind do you have link to the AliEx pads?

I’ve used a variety of different Aliexpress sintered brake pads, including the ones Northwind mentioned. Just search mtb brake pads on AE and look through until you find them.

Never had any problems with them, and wouldn’t care if I did, they’re so cheap I buy in bulk and always carry a pair on me. I’ve had OEM pads barely last me a week.

     

Hi , i went the Galpher Green route but have only lasted about 200 miles, granted i have been running in some pretty bad conditions over the past month, is there any thing harder wearing i average around 50-70 miles a week  sick to death of changing brake pads i was getting around 500 miles from Shimano N05a fiinned pads,

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005847922069.html

I’m assuming these are the Ali express pads?

I’m also in need of some and I normally use the blue Uber ones in my ebike, but I’m going to give these a try seeing as they are not stupidly priced.

Hi , i went the Galpher Green route but have only lasted about 200 miles, granted i have been running in some pretty bad conditions over the past month, is there any thing harder wearing i average around 50-70 miles a week  sick to death of changing brake pads i was getting around 500 miles from Shimano N05a fiinned pads

Black Galfer pads last longer than the green and are not that much less in terms of performance.

 i went the Galpher Green route but have only lasted about 200 miles, granted i have been running in some pretty bad conditions over the past month, is there any thing harder wearing i average around 50-70 miles a week

Honestly I’d try some budget sintered pads in your situation.

You might start going through rotors more quickly instead though 😀

I rather like brake authority ceramic, been using them for a few years now and I would take a lot of convincing to use anything else.

Uberbike do ebike specific (I know right!) pads now. I thought I’d give em a blast, and they are excellent. Designed to be powerful AND long lasting, don’t see why they wouldn’t be just as good on non-ebikes.

And just as I’ve ordered the Ali express ones, I’ve got an email from uberbike with a 20% off Halloween code ?

Spooky20 for those not on the mailing list.

Spooky huh?!

I bought some Decathlon disc pads one time in a bike emergency (if such a thing exists) and was surprised by how decent they were. Been buying them ever since. They’re quiet, perform well and are cheap.

They’re probably made by one of the big brands.

I forgot to say, that I’ve just fitted a pair of Uber bike organic semi-sintered ones to my Hello Dave, must have bought them a while ago as I don’t remember buying them 🙂

Not ridden in anger yet, but they bedded in really quickly and have a noticably better bite to the stock SRAM ones.

I think getting a brake proper filthy and hot really helps bed the pads in, helping to last a while.

When I change pads I like to give the rotors a bit of a sand and clean. Then ride them up down the hill outside my house getting them hot, then dousing them in water. I do this a few times and then I can really feel the pads starting bite. My pads seem to last a while.

My biggest problem with anything other than OEM is noise. Not tried Galfer but have tried Uber and Clarkes – road bike use with SRAM and some other cheap LBS recommendations on my Shimano MTB . Always squealed apart from the OEM sram/shimano.

I buy random AliExpress pads. 10 pairs for £10. I buy cheap rotors too. Not dead yet. It does take an element of planning ahead though.

Edit – It does take an element of planning ahead though. – The purchasing, not the actual stopping.