Superstar brake pads any good? What about Kevlar ones?

Anyone use Superstar brake pads in Avid Elixirs? And which compounds are best for power? Are the kevlar ones any good? Thanks.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/superstar-kevlar-pads-opinions

So far, for me, been fine – nowt special, but do the job. Not been in long enough to be any less vague than that.

yeah there ok, sintered are a bit noisey and i seem to get rubbing with them. put organic on the front and sintered on the bank and the orgnic are silent, so it must be the pad.

wl – Member
Anyone use Superstar brake pads in Avid Elixirs?

Surely a recipe for death, right there… 🙂

Long long ago in a Galaxy far far away …………

Some people will never buy Superstar pads, because of some early examples where the pad material simply parted from the backing plates. Some of those people will reply to this thread.

I have bought and used many pairs of SS pads, and none has failed yet.

Superstar themselves say they will refund you if you are not 100% happy. Now that doesn’t sound like the promise of someone who hasn’t gone out and sorted some early problems.

Next we will see posts from people who decry their customer service, based on some early horror stories around wheel bearings. However, I tested their Customer Service when some spoke nipples broke on some wheels I bought from them a couple of years ago. They replaced the alloy nipples with brass ones, and at the same time replaced the main bearing in the hub, all FOC.

Organic for power, sintered for long-life, kevlar somewhere in the middle YMMV.

Just put some sintered in my Elixir’s. Will inspect them tonight, but two very wet rides in the Cannock grinding paste should give a good indication as to how they will stand up. As said, slightly noisy.

I use SS pads in Shimano XT 785 and Avid Juicy 7’s and 3’s.

785’s are sintered – amazing power (as much as the original Shimano resin pads once bedded in). Not been in long enough to see how long they last.

Juicy 7’s – I’ve had these brakes for years, and once I used up the orginal Avid pads, they’ve always been on Superstar pads, except a foray into disco sintered, which were long lasting but had minimal friction coefficient! SS sintered work great – more powerful and longer lasting than the original Avid pads. SS resin pads in these brakes give better stopping than sintered, but reduced pad life – probably half the life of sintered in average conditions.

Juicy 3’s – as J7’s.

I have a pair of Kevlar for the Juicy’s but haven’t tried them yet.

Oh, and whilst I’m not a fan of their/fruits early days on here, SS customer service has been spot on the only time I had to use it. Despatch is always reliably fast too.

The SS Kevlar are really good imo

The SS Kevlar are really good imo

+1

I used them in Elixir CRs and XXs, they were good.

Biggest improvement was buying XTR brakes though.

Ta for this. Sounds good enough to me – I’ll give a set of organics a go. They’re cheap enough to take a punt on, and I have other Superstar bits that have been spot on.

The SS Kevlar are really good imo

+2

Did someone say superstar?

I got the organic pads front and back for Mountain Mayhem this year (expecting to go through at least one set of pads due to the conditions..) I’m not even halfway through the pads. delivery was good too considering I only gave then 4 days to arrive before the race. For the price they are good value I think.

A friend got through 3 sets of superstar kevlar pads in a day doing the Passportes Du Soliel this year in the wet. Put some hope sintered bought from hope at the morzine show half way round, just as good power, and still going at the end of the trip.

I used the kevler ones for a while now, less likely to disappear in a day due to grit/wear but bed in easily and don’t squeal like sintered.

Kevlar in Elixir CR’s on my hardtail x 6 months hard riding
Kevlar in Juicy 7’s on the FS just replaced the front only in a weeks Alps trip

Tried all regular Avid’s own, EBC, etc etc and keep coming back to SS

No problems with the kevlar ones here.
Lasted all week last year when we were out in Verbier with you.

I’ve found the superstar Kevlar pads worse than their sintered pads when used with Formula RXs, they just don’t seem to have anywhere near as much bite!

Kevlar pads are reasonable for the money, don’t last as long as sintered and have reasonable bite but you actually get less surface area of pad material compared to the Hope pads I replaced on my tech x2’s. My current set haven’t lasted as long I’d have hoped but then summer hasn’t quite been as dry as I’d hoped either!

Talking of Superstar, anyone having problems buying anything from the site?
I’m trying to buy some brake pads but it keeps jumping to login screen, my basket keeps clearing itself, then it jumps to login again, and generally won’t work…. 🙁
Thats on my laptop, doesn’t work on my phone either..

They dont have the pads I want listed on the ebay site either…

^
No problems here

I’ve just put sintered new on my bike out in Morzine and they’re coming off again tonight as they are the noisiest things I’ve ever heard. I used their Kevlar ones 2 years ago out here and in the wet they lasted less than a day. And I’m not a brake dragger(not to bad anyway). Never had any problems with any of their other products I’ve bought , but will be paying for better pads from now on.
Tom kp

Kevlars from them are SUPERB.

I used both organic ones and sintered ones in Morzine …

I must have had 20 pairs of Superstar pads over the years, never had an issue with any.

kayak23 – Member

Talking of Superstar, anyone having problems buying anything from the site?
I’m trying to buy some brake pads but it keeps jumping to login screen, my basket keeps clearing itself, then it jumps to login again, and generally won’t work….
Thats on my laptop, doesn’t work on my phone either

Yes, another thread on it on Sat.

I had same issues today.. i just kept pressing the button and eventually ordered what i needed.

i’m sure this had been said before but the only thing worse than the pads they peddle is the ‘customer service’ they provide…….. i’d rather run metal on metal than give them my money for pads!

Superstar themselves say they will refund you if you are not 100% happy. Now that doesn’t sound like the promise of someone who hasn’t gone out and sorted some early problems.

No they wont……i was told i was using the wrong pads for the conditions and ‘tough’ 🙁

Tried the Kevlar in my hope m4’s and IMO they’re not as good as the OE pads they replaced.

I use them in all my brakes and get good results- excellent performance, decent lifespan. Though they can be pretty noisy in the cold and wet- tbh all my brakes are noisy, I’ve got the bad touch, so it doesn’t bother me but if you’re used to quiet then you might hate them.

gsp1984 – Member

A friend got through 3 sets of superstar kevlar pads in a day doing the Passportes Du Soliel this year in the wet. Put some hope sintered bought from hope at the morzine show half way round, just as good power, and still going at the end of the trip.

Aye, if you don’t bed them in well then they don’t last at all- and tbh it’d be very hard to bed them in during an event like that.

I hope they are good, just bought 4 sets of the kevlar ones for my new SLX

fairly certain (someone i know has done some form of boffin test on pads for a mag) that most pads come from 1 or 2 suppliers, so not much point in paying over the odds

some other friends are importing pads wholesale, which are every bit as good as any other’s i’ve used (they don’t have new shimano ones yet, hence the SS purchase), and for the price i paid, someone is making a killing

Ive used both sintered and kevlar in my avids the kevlar give better feel than the sintered to me but they ain’t keen on wet gritty places not recommend for the peaks and Ive eaten thru a set in a very wet day at dalby. … The metal backing pad didn’t do a bad job of slowing me down tho! id recommend both just carry a spare pair if you use the kevlar in wet gritty areas! Atm i have kevlar front sintered back never tried organic