Is there a general time frame or is it totally specific to the type of riding your doing?

When they wear out.

The latter. Riding style, grade, weather, soil type… all will affect the wear rate.

And depends on the pads too. I’ve had pads last for 3 and 4 years, others last a few weeks… Sometimes even the same variety of pad from the same manufacturer.

A new set of sintered pads lasted until just before the end of the W2 trail at a (very) wet, sandy Afan on Thursday. Descending the Wall with just a front brake was ‘interesting’.

every few thousand miles.

when they wear out, which can be 6 months or 6 hours depending on the weather and location.

I’ve been through an entire set in one wet day at Kielder but the ones on my full suss have been there since March.

Just keep an eye on them and check them before you ride. Worth carrying a spare set with you as they are tiny but essential.

Thanks All !

i use sintered and only used to get a month out of them if lucky but the set in currently have been in since spring , i keep thinking ill only get a few more rides out of them and ill change them but they aren’t going down, its great

superstar pads by the way

In contrast to Boxfish’ experience,last year I rode the Wall 3 times in 2 weeks in absolutely foul weather on a 4 month old set of standard hope pads, and used them for another 2 or 3 months (usually 3 decent rides a week)after that. I don’t think you can really use somebody else’s experience to judge pad life.

Anything between 6 months and 2hours

Or the set that lasted me all summer and the replacement set that lasted one lap of Dusk til Dawn.

Bascially til they wear out.

Hope pads seem to last me ages. New hayes pads which I put on this morning are pretty much totallted after doing just Whites level + Whites climb with skyline descent at Afan today.

Aw, thats no good,Planning on doing the Mast DH tomorrow Afternoon . . shall have to behave myself I think! How wet was it today BTW?

Well I guess if your worried fit some new ones tonight or in the morning.

Or just pack some in your car/backpack incase they wear out.

Have fun

Whenever I’m on an STW ride. They always get mangled on those rides so the kind sports change them for me. Class! I haven’t forgotten I owe you some, Wharfedale! 😆

I got about two years out of my last set on my one and only bike. I often ride in the peak too where legend has it that pads last hours.

Just to really mess this up, I run caliper with four pads in. Although all four pistons move evenly and freely, one of the four pads has worn about 25% quicker than the other three.

when i hear metal on metal

They can last months or one ride, it just depends.

Totally dependant on location and weather. One ride in winter up Dalby will knacker them, but they last for months if I stick to local trails. +1 for superstar pads – dead cheap on ebay and are just as good as any others.

Use hope sintered and never last less than a few hundred miles. Do folk not bed them in or whatever it’s called – getting them very hot when new?

It appears that there is something very complex and multi factorial going on with this – and its not just conditions but you need other factors as well to add up against you to get the rapid pad wear.

I have never had it even riding in places where there is this legendary rapid pad wear. I put this down to :

Hope original sintered pads
Being a mincer so using the brakes a lot so they get and remain hot
Using small discs so the brakes get hot.
Bedding pas in well

A disc brake working properly you have a thin smear of pad material deposited on the disc and in the main its adherent friction not abrasive. There is s working temperature range for this to happen

with cold discs you get abrasive friction and this is when the wear happens. couple this with grit that removes the boundary layer and you can get the very rapid wear. It is interesting that on this thread there are two people who ride in areas renowned for rapid wear but that don’t get it

Some formulations of pads will have higher amounts of abrasive friction even in the best of conditions and some formulations of pads will require different heat ranges.

Finally bedding pads in properly is crucial. With some pads and some riding styles this can happen during riding, some will have to bed them in deliberately. You have to get the pads to several hundred degrees to bed in. during this process 3 things happen. The pad cures with heat and pressure, it conforms to the disc and a thin smear of pad material is deposited on the disc.

Want long pad life? make sure your brakes get nice and hot. Use good quality sintered pads, bed the pads in, use hope brakes.

No time frame just when they wear out. So dependent on weather and mud type together with how much I ride.

The bike I used a bit in the summer and did a week in the alps on still has same pass it did last year.

The single speed uses pads more quickly! No idea why!

One set normally lasts from spring and all summer unless it’s a wet summer. 3 or 4 sets over the autumn an winter.

I really do get thousands of miles – summer and winter. a couple of years at a minimum

Whenever they wear out. Although Afan in the wet will eat sintered pads also. I ran organic in the Alps recently in some damp conditions, loads of pad life left.

I rarely have to change pads, last sets I changed were 18/24 months old Hope/Hayes, both standard OE pads with life left in them, I only changed them as I thought it best to as I bled them at the same time

OK, so I don’t ride every week (at least once a month) but have ridden through some of UK’s finest grinding paste & not had a set of pads wear out in just one ride, my rides vary from 10-40 milers and general XC/trail riding/mincing

Just goes to show along with the rest of the replies how many variables there are with pad life

coatesy – Member
In contrast to Boxfish’ experience,last year I rode the Wall 3 times in 2 weeks in absolutely foul weather on a 4 month old set of standard hope pads, and used them for another 2 or 3 months (usually 3 decent rides a week)after that. I don’t think you can really use somebody else’s experience to judge pad life.

+1.

I ride Afan pretty often being fairly local, and was up there last week to ride parts of W2 plus some other trails. My brake pads (Elixir CRs) are still in working order and are probably the same pads I had in for the previous visit, and the visit 6 months ago. They will need changing soon, but that’s 6 months of pretty hard use, a few times a week.

I can’t see how a set of pads could be wrecked on a single loop of W2, regardless of the weather. The surface isn’t particularly abrasive, and even if Boxfish were a serious brake-dragger (I’m not saying he is!), it surely isn’t enough of a ride to go through the pads?

Sub standard pads?

To follow on from TJs comments. The only set of pads I’ve had that have lasted more than one wet ride were bedded in by riding a couple of technical 1000+m vert descents in the Pyrenees. The back ones lasted about 9 months, the fronts are just about dead after a year. They got proper hot.

Today I’ve just trashed a set of 2 dry rides old sintered pads in about 15 miles of the Surrey Hills. UK riding, I simply cannot get brakes hot enough. I’m light, I ride fast and don’t brake much, and I tend to ride in gritty conditions. As I like steep technical riding (when it’s available), I also like big brakes which means yet more heat conducting metal. One wet fireroad climb can be enough to total a set of pads for me. The spray off the front wheel covers the rear rotor and the pads start grinding. Start the downhill, try and dry the brakes, and I can literally feel the pad crumble through the brake lever.

Hopes seem to be better as the pads pull further away from the rotor when you let go of the lever, so there’s more room for grit/water to pass through without rubbing on the rotor.

I’m considering trying an experiment. Scrub the pads in to the rotor (ie typical bedding in effort) then stick the pads in the oven for 1/2 hour or so to get them proper and evenly hot. See if that makes any difference.

interesting stuff jon – that sort of validates my thoughts on this, The pads on the tandem last for yonks – and they get very hot frequently

Why don’t you try smaller discs?

Why don’t I try smaller discs? Because I like the stopping power. My riding style is basically to stay off the brakes as long as possible, then brake hard (in a controlled fashion) at the last minute. Big rotors = good. My Soda has a Hope 180 M4/160 X2 setup on it, and that I find at times is definitely underpowered – especially if the descent is long. The 200/180 setups on my other bikes are much better.

Surely you’ll get much better stopping power from smaller discs if you have properly bedded in pads though Jon, no?

My experience is much like yours and TJs, in that properly bedded in pads last *much* long, but in my experience they also have much better stopping power.
Maybe you just feel the need to the big rotors because the pads aren’t bedded in properly, a kind of vicious circle?

Call Nick.

Nick, tell TJ how bad the Gorrick Enduro was and how many sets of brake pads were ‘eaten’ that day?

We were also in the Surrey Hill today, and all three of us were ‘pad lacking’ by the end.

br – the interesting thing is for every person who tells a tale of a place where pads get eaten there is another who rides there and it doesn’t happen – see afan and two folk on this thread. I have heard the same from the peaks as well.

Jon – I think the smaller discs with well bedded pads would be worth trying – as glen says. Post mount calipers its easy to do. You can always change back but well bedded pads give good braking. My hope minis are single finger locking of wheels on 160mmm discs.

Its a real puzzle this one – Jambo I think it was rides in a sytle like jons with big discs in areas renowned for pad wear – but doesn’t get fast pad wear.

Its bizzare but I am convinced heat is a big part of it.

Pads last me ages, sintered or Kevlar. Thats riding in sandy/gritty conditions or Surrey Hills, trips to Afan and local S.Downs/Wield. I try not to brake much, and although not hot, they work just fine. I have noticed on decents that mates brakes are steaming, yet mine are nothing more than slightly hot.

Jon – are you Jon Edwards of Ports IBM (prob left now)? I sold you my old Rockhopper frame in approx ’96. Its Dave G here 🙂

Like Jon my best set of pads were a sintered pair that I heated up good and proper in the Alps one year. They lasted well, and like him I’m the last of the late brakers. I usual get through 3 sets a year, I’ll be swapping the organic pads soonish when they wear out for a sintered pair which will see me through to about March, then another set of organic for the spring/summer, and maybe another set if they wear out. Not particularly bothered by long life, in the dry months organic give me better braking performance, which is more important to me. 2-3 sets a year i can live with.

OK, so say I swap to smaller rotors – this “bedded in properly” business. What are you suggesting I do?

Current methodology is to ride up and down my road (steepish hill) half a dozen times with the brakes on. They’re up to full operating power by then – instant back wheel lock up, easy seated stoppies. What am I NOT doing? Todays pads had that treatment and 2 or 3 good long – but dry – rides. Honestly, I can’t see how I can get them any more bedded in, regardless of rotor size.

What I suspect, is that the heat affected/bedded in bit of pad is only very thin. The only way I can see to maintain a properly high temperature long enough to cook the pad all the way through in one go, is either to have an enormous hill, or to apply some external heat source.

JonEdwards – Member
OK, so say I swap to smaller rotors – this “bedded in properly” business. What are you suggesting I do?

Current methodology is to ride up and down my road (steepish hill) half a dozen times with the brakes on. They’re up to full operating power by then – instant back wheel lock up, easy seated stoppies. What am I NOT doing?

That is basically the same as I do – substitute a 5 minute ride up and down the ramps of the local Park and Ride, applying the brakes at varying intensity. I don’t have any methodical way of bedding pads in because mine always last for months wherever I ride.

If only we had a way of accessing the encyclopaedic knowledge of, oh I don’t know, a national magazine! 🙂 Would this make an interesting article I wonder?

I change mine shortly after they look like this:

jon – sounds like they are bedded in , Science officer came up with this as a possible answer.
When the disc brake is working properly you get a thin smear of pad material deposited on the disc – this is formed by effectively melting the surface of the pad. When you brake you get a semi fluid boundary layer were adherent friction is created. Under these conditions the pad does not wear much. If the layer on the disc is worn away quicker than it cxan be deposited then you go into abrasive friction and this is where the pad wears very quickly.

Perhaps this is what is happening with you

So again heat would seem to be the key hence the thought that smaller discs may keep the braking surfaces hotter and you have less area to retain the layer

its only a theory tho

I rarely have to change pads, last sets I changed were 18/24 months old Hope/Hayes, both standard OE pads with life left in them, I only changed them as I thought it best to as I bled them at the same time

OK, so I don’t ride every week (at least once a month) but have ridden through some of UK’s finest grinding paste & not had a set of pads wear out in just one ride, my rides vary from 10-40 milers and general XC/trail riding/mincing

Just goes to show along with the rest of the replies how many variables there are with pad life
Just a follow up from my last post on this subject…

Just replaced the rear pads on the Cube (Formula R1) and they’re not quite back to the backing plate, maybe .5mm – 1mm of pad material left on them.

Lifespan ~300 miles (worst I’ve had for disc brakes)

Not quite sure as to why the rear’s wore out 1st front’s still look good, guess I’m dragging the rear a bit 😳