Disc brakes are shite: The conclusion

I’m still not convinced by disc brakes (see seperate thread) but in conclusion, the reasons my pads disappear in a couple of hours are:

1) I am a talentless **** for even using my brakes in the first place 😉
2) I need to bed my pads in properly, which will prove quite expensive as I’ll need to move house to get near enough to a road hill (kind of ironic)long enough to bed the brakes in on my MTB
3) I need to research late into the night regarding abrasive and adhesive braking
4) Or maybe I don’t need to bed my pads in at all….

I think we are all taken for mugs by the bike industry where pads designed to be used in mud can disappear in couple of hours riding.

One of the reasons I love cycling is the simplicity of the machines I ride. Simple to operate, simple to maintain. Until now.

In my humble opinion, if we can send people to the moon, why can’t we buy brakes for pushbike that you bolt on and they work. For a couple of weeks at least. Even in rain and mud. It’s all bollocks and we perpetuate it by putting up with it.

why can’t we buy brakes for pushbike that you bolt on and they work.

Deore 556 with discobrake medium pads. Get many months of use out of a set riding twice a week through winter.

have you considered buying a fixie? 😉 😆

With my shimano pads, I bought different types of pads, superstar, EBC. All disintegrated at the first sign of mud and sand. Went back to Shimano ones in the end and they lasted much longer.

The Formula ones in my K18 brakes on the current bike also are holding up well, and the pads in the Juicy 5s on my singlespeed have lasted from new and are nearly 2 years old.

I have decided that cheap pads are a false economy. A quick scratch on the edge of the kerb, and a few drags on the brakes and they are always good to go.

Only changed the pads in my juicys once in a years and 3 months, that was only the front also. Back is nearly ready now. The bike gets abused, mega rides, fast DH stuff also, rain, snow, sand, salt (well once) never had any “go” on me in a couple of hours.

Sounds like your doing something fundamentally wrong, and i would say that is the bedding in issue.

I said this in a bedding in thread, may have been yours, but all i do i squirt water on them ride stop, and keep doing that till they stop me very suddenly. Sorted!

Also after riding the cross bike off road in the wet and mud last weekend, with that horriable noisy Vee brake noise, no power. Discs are the future,

why can’t we buy brakes for pushbike that you bolt on and they work

Never had a porblem with any of the disks brakes I had. To me riding mainly around the peak, I think disks have been the best advance in biking technology in years (for me better than suspension), a no fuss improvement over v’s and canti’s. If you don’t like them, don’t use them, simple.

why can’t we buy brakes for pushbike that you bolt on and they work. For a couple of weeks at least. Even in rain and mud

I have – Hope M4s on the tandem and minis on the solo – both used with sintered pads and once a year I service them and change pads wether they need it or not.

if you can’t find a hill near to you ride round the block a few times dragging the brakes a little. soon warms them up. then spit a few mouthfuls of water over the discs and repeat.

this is what i do as i don’t see the point riding up a hill only to ride back down on-road.

my deore pads last ages, 6 months or so, descending 800m twice a week.

alpin – Member
descending 800m twice a week.

Where do you live, Snowdon 😆

theboatman – try buying a bike without disc brakes, it’s not easy…

Um, read your original post earlier, did you say you were using “red” pads? Are you sure they weren’t DH race pads, which are mega soft but very, well, brakey?

Sometimes pads can wear out fast, but disk pads for me have been cheaper than the equivalent wear in V brake blocks and rims.

Stuff about bedding pads in is, you’re right in thinking, a load of rubbish peddled by people that sell pads that fall to bits. Pads do need bedding in, but this happens in natural use, and certainly doesn’t have an effect on the life of the pads.

I agree we’re taken for mugs though – pads for my car last 1000’s of miles of hard driving stopping 1.5 tonnes, pads for my bike last maybe 1000 miles stopping 0.1 tonnes and cost the same amount!

we dont send people to the moon ! IT WAS ALL FAKE !
Bed in Brakes when they are new !

A2Z Kevlar Extreem weather pads last nicely in mud n’ shite.

OE hayes stroker pads are also bloody good, only had to change mine due to contamination

and change pads wether they need it or not.

Bless 🙄

try buying a bike without disc brakes, it’s not easy…

Nor is buying a new black and white tele 😕 if you have a ‘problem’ and want to make a minority choice then, yes your options will be limited, and you would have to put a bit more effort in. But I would be more upset if I had to have rim brake bosses ugly’ing up my frame because a limited few can’t bed their pads in.

superstar organic pads in the Peaks, should have ben a recipie for diaster, but i bed’d them i properly, an they lasted the winter, and at the rate i’m going, next winter too as i wont be riding much this summer 🙁

theboatman, I turn on my mahoosive flatscreen TV and it works. It’s better than black and white (unless you like Fred Astaire) and is an improvement on what went before. However when I go for a couple of hour bike ride and my brakes just wear out!

And on set were bedded in, they still disappeared. I ride plenty in all weathers. My riding buddy has exactly the same problem, different bike set up. Don’t you think it’s reasonable to expect brakes to just work?

Nice condescending reply though.

can we have another thread about how you dont get it?

Sure, hang on a minute….. 😉

In my humble opinion, if we can send people to the moon, why can’t we buy brakes for pushbike that you bolt on and they work.

Whilst I can’t solve your problem, I can possibly shed some light (you kinda answered it) the people who design and engineer bike parts are either the arseholes of the engineering world or the just love bikes. All the best engineers send objects to space or make things that blow buildings and people up, with the only crossover point being F1 engineers who also need brake pads but theirs only need to last a single race.

Nice condescending reply though

No worries, was a pleasure 😉

Don’t you think it’s reasonable to expect brakes to just work?

I don’t agree with your presumption they don’t, as this is not the experience I have had (and you are basing your presumption on your own experience), so I have no answer to your question. It’s like saying to me;
‘My beer tastes like muffins, should it not reasonably taste like beer?’
and I’d have to reply;
‘Erm…My beer tastes like beer….so I cannot comment on your beer….but my beer is beery’ and good…mmmmm beer’
I would also helpfully suggest you try a muffin, just in case.

I’ve got Hope M4 brakes with sintered pads. I bed them in and to be honest, they’ve lasted so long, I’d struggle to tell you exactly how many years old they are. Way more reliable than faffing to realign a set of canti or v brakes pads as they wear or having to make sure the cables are lubed and the rim running true.

“I agree we’re taken for mugs though – pads for my car last 1000’s of miles of hard driving stopping 1.5 tonnes, pads for my bike last maybe 1000 miles stopping 0.1 tonnes and cost the same amount! “

damn, your bike weight 100kgs!! That’s heavy 😉

Disc brakes = ace – FACT!

You’re not wrong Kona_ona!
In certain conditions, I’ve found that pads of any kind will quickly wear away. Up here I believe its caused by the granite grit in the peaty mud.

This winter I had Hayes 9 and Shimano 535 pads wear out like this on two successive rides. So, have set up my old MPHs (with manual gap adjusters) with sintered pads – adjusted out from the rotor to keep the gap as wide as I can. So far, so good. Same pads since december.

in some conditions disc pads will wear fast in the wet when it is muddy but don’t go all ‘im my day’ on us’ i remember when v brake pads would barely work, wear out every other ride and take the rim with them by the end of the winter!!

also mountainbiking in the uk is pretty extreme conditions to engineer for; think wrc car not ford focus for going to the shop in

theboatman, you only read what you want to see! Where’s the ‘presumption?’ It’s a fact! I have solid experience… disc brakes should just work and last a while. But they don’t.

My beer tastes of beer. I love muffin, just love it. In fact Mrs kona_ona’s going to get it right now. Far more fun than mtb’s.

kona – and others – myself included have disc brakes that just work.

Hayes HFX Nines. Pads last for literally months with 2-3 rides each week in wet, gritty Calderdale. Brakes are cheap, reliable and bombproof. They just lack the daft shiny fiddly bits you snap off Hopes if you crash.

I normally go out for a blast along a few fireroads before i get on any trails, If you get about 20 miles of fireroads in one weekend it should bed them in.

Normally i take the GF just for a bit of company fireroads are boring

Generally ive stuck with the brake manufacturers pads than another brand as past experience they dont last as long, I got through a set of EBC sintereds in 2 long rides wheres my Avids have been in 9-10 rides now and not that worn either

Mine and all my mates disc brakes just work, riding twice a week in the mud in Scotland. You either have some very weird conditions or very weird brakes or pads.

he he. This thread is great. Set your brakes up properly and you’ll not go through pads quickly nor need to ‘bed them in’, (what a load of crap that one is). What on earth do people think they are doing when they bed their pads in that they don’t do when they’re out on a ride?

Going downhill fast and braking hard? Hmmm, that sounds rather like a ride.

exactly, i just go riding and accept the performance will be gash for a few miles. they sort themselves out and last forever….

maybe stating the obvious, but surely the added braking performance over v-brakes and the fact that more control let you rode FASTER outweighs the extra cost of replacing pads?

In my humble opinion, if we can send people to the moon, why can’t we buy brakes for pushbike that you bolt on and they work. For a couple of weeks at least. Even in rain and mud. It’s all bollocks and we perpetuate it by putting up with it.

They do, and the only bedding in I do is applying the brakes hard a few times in a row when the pads are new.

will – Member

alpin – Member
descending 800m twice a week.

Where do you live, Snowdon

the alps….

Braking style is something that hasnt been mentioned. Do you drag your brakes? Pulse them? Are you a late & hard braker (skids are4 kids method)? Whats your riding style like? Are you smooth & flowing, picking your line neatly or just jamming on the brakes ‘cos yr not looking ahead & anticapating speed changes. Not a critique by the way, just that differing riding styles affect the way you wear your parts.

Really, its not that hard, just bed them correctly. Even without a hill – you have legs that can simulate a bloody steep gradient. God, in this day and age when we can send people to the moon, why cant we just follow basic instructions for setting up discs. It’s all bollocks and we perpetuate it by refusing to follow the basic instructions given to us by fellow experienced users…

Some folks riding styles will bed the pads in “just riding along” as Jambo and others find. Some pads bed in easier than others.
‘cos I tend to use gentle braking a lot if I don’t make a deliberate effort to bed them in I get glazed pads that don’t then work well and squeal like heck. (‘cos they have not got up to temperature) I used to get the same with my motorcycle discs ‘cos of my riding style.

If you go straight out with new pads into gritty conditions you might get premature wear as the boundary layer does not form.. If your riding style and the pads you have bed in perfectly well in normal riding then they are still bedded in – just you haven’t had to do it deliberately.

I suggested making a concious effort to bed pads in following the manufacturers advice for people who get the premature pad wear. If it works for you without making the concious effort then fine.