Disc brakes are shite: The conclusion

Where you ride definitely has a HUGE impact on brake pad life. This winter I have not been to Afan once. My brake pads are now > 6 months old and have plenty of life left yet. I could guarantee you that if I visit Afan in the wet both F&R sets will be shot probably before the ride is over :-(.

For what it’s worth I do bed the pads in until they are stinking hot. Still can eat a set of pads in one big wet day out at Afan. That’s why I largely restrict it to summer time trips now 🙁

Molgrips – interesting comments about Cwm Carn. I have not really noticed Cwm Carn being that bad (relative to Afan at least!) but at the same time I have been there less than normal this winter also. May be contributing to my better pad life?

Hope Mono M4 brakes and I have used all types of pad brands. No noticable difference TBH (including Superstar FWIW)

Amedias and CountZero:

It all depends entirely on where you ride and in what conditions. It’s not a sliding scale, it’s a threshold thing. If you ride on loamy soil your pads will last years. The organic matter in the soil soaks up the surface water and turns it into thicker mud, which doesn’t splash about much in small droplets and ends up staying away from your discs. If you ride in a sandstone area with sandy gritty soil AND there’s more than a certain amount of water on the surface you end up with a watery paste on the surface of the trails – this splashes up and gets on your discs. FURTHERMORE you also need it to be raining or have just stopped, so that there’s lots of water about. This way, you get a film of water sat between your pads and the rotor which holds a suspension of grit in place. This grit being held in place is what causes the ultra fast pad wear. If the conditions aren’t quite as above, your pads will last ages.

On one Polaris in the Peak I was very concerned that I wasn’t going to be able to finish the day with pads intact, it was that wet and gritty. I’d used up most of a pair in a day – so on the second day I started stopping periodically to wash the grit out of the pads every time I saw a clean water source, or even just trying to blow the gritty water away (don’t try this when you’ve just stopped as you burn your lips!). It worked – I did the whole second day on the last smear of pad.

I have not really noticed Cwmcarn being that bad

It’s not bad at all unless it’s actually raining. Then all that trail erosion + rain water creates lots of grit for your rotors and chain.

Molgrips, that one entry has probably told me more about Peak conditions and their effects on brakes than anything I’ve previously read, and accounts, in part for why my pads last so long. The other is that, with four bikes the riding load is spread more thinly, and I’m a reasonably ‘light’ rider, preferring to scatter other trail users to either side rather than use my brakes to slow down.*

*that last bit isn’t actually true. ;0)

I know it’s way off topic,but rock known as gritstone isn’t granite,but a form of ‘sandstone on steroids’,the hardrock you see on crags often only goes so far into the rock,which is a patina created by weathering,and underneath that is usually pale brown and easy to rub away with your finger.

Quarried gritstone is a little bit different,where it’s more solid in nature all the way through,it’s still ‘sandstone on steroids’,and it isn’t called granite.

MBUK got it wrong when they called the rock granite in thier feature on somebody riding along a high wire between two 30ft boulders.

Personally i find BB7 disc brakes to be fine in use,and my pads have lasted ages,i just cycled down my drive quickly a few times and braked hard at the bottom. I did an endo by mistake after fitting my front one and pulling the lever like on V brake front brakes.

Actually i braked hard lots of times ging down my drive. Braking hard seems to be the key thing to do,from reading this thread.

Molgrips – there was someone on this thread who claims to ride in the peaks in all conditions and gets long life from his pads. I have seen the same about other areas of so called high pad wear.

It seems to me there is something else other than purely the conditions. Its just seems to be not that simple. Its conditions / type of rock +factor x ( riding style??) + factor Y ( type of brake pad??} + factor Z ( bedding in???} plus the b*gger factor all stacking up against you to get the premature pad wear from what I can see.