The summer has finally come to an end here in the garden of eden that is the thames valley. the organic pads in my elixirs have finally gone south and so I’d like an update on the above before buying a winter batch. I used superstar sintered last winter and they seemed to last ok a couple of weeks out of each set but are this years any different….

thx

never tried the red kevlar superstarpads – are they an alternative for winter use?

i’m also thinking of trying them, they’re on offer at the minute, £25 for 4 pairs.

Seriously — Two weeks out of pads? I ride in all weathers,the bike and I get covered but I’d fully expect a set of superstar sintered pads to last around 3-6 months of off road riding around 6 -10 hours a week.

When I read about a set of pads lasting one ride I just don’t understand. Someone claimed to have done a set of sintered pads in one ride of W2 in the wet and that can’t be possible unless theres a problem surely?

Mate tried the Kevlars in the summer- awful!Think they actually contributed to stipping the outer edge off the rotor.

He likes the standard ones too.

I got mine from Readytoride Cycles

I had a set of Discos on my Juicy 5s – utterly terrible. Avoid.

I used Superstar sintered.

joolsburger – Member

Seriously — Two weeks out of pads? I ride in all weathers,the bike and I get covered but I’d fully expect a set of superstar sintered pads to last around 3-6 months of off road riding around 6 -10 hours a week.

it’s the sandy soil round these parts that does it – some of the fire roads at swinley are finer than beach sand…

rockthreegozy – Member

Mate tried the Kevlars in the summer- awful!Think they actually contributed to stipping the outer edge off the rotor.

He likes the standard ones too.

I got mine from Readytoride Cycles

Any chance the rotor was already ****? They’re really good pads IMHO.

Thetford’s pretty sandy, but I generally get one winter out of a set of pads.
There have been exceptions – 4.5hrs of the D2D this year killed front & rear pads and it was so slow going that I was hardly actually using the brakes. They were not bedded in though that does seem to make a massive difference.

I’m sure I read on here that SS Kevlar pads don’t like wet conditions, so I’d go for the sintered ones and make sure you bed them in, by repeatedly stopping from high speed – 15 times or so per brake & only use one brake at a time.
I don’t know why it works, but it does seem to make them last longer.

Nope- happened to both front and rear. Rear sheared off, front was removed before that happened. Pads effectively scored through the rotor.

Replaced with new rotors and Superstar Resins, no issues.

On ther excessive wear – it is far more than the soil / trail surface type as not everyone who rides in a particular area gets the excessive wear. examples on this thread
http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/how-often-do-you-change-your-brake-pads

Personally I would be returning any pad that woree out in dozens of miles back tot he manufacturer as “not fit for purpose” but this has never happened to me despite riding all year round. I use hope sintered pads and get thousands of miles out of them. I change pads so rarely I can’t remember when I last did them. I think just the rear on the solo in a couple of years, just the rears on the tandem in a couple of years

Personally I always use original pads if I can get them and if not from one of the major manufacturers . I wouldn’t use cheap brake pads. To many issues with what is a safety critical component.

if you really only get a couple of weeks use from a set of pads, i suggest you continue to buy the cheapest ones.

my pad use is measured in months, more often than not i change the pads* on an annual(ish) service – and keep the part worns for emergency spares

lots of love

rider in the thames valley.

*Magura Louise (endurance) and Hope M4 (sintered)

rockthreegozy – Member

Nope- happened to both front and rear. Rear sheared off, front was removed before that happened. Pads effectively scored through the rotor.

Replaced with new rotors and Superstar Resins, no issues.

You’re saying that a non-metallic pad scored through a 2mm piece of steel?

I appreciate that from your point of view that is what appears to have happened, but it just doesn’t make sense to me how that can be the case.

^^

That does sound quite an impressive feat!
The stainless steel of the rotor is way harder than the backing plate & the pad material, so shouldn’t be overly damaged by them.
At the D2D, my disc wasn’t very well aligned and managed to take a very thin layer off the inside edge of the caliper (don’t ask!!) but the rotor appears completely unblemished.

TJ – I’ve been using the same set of organic pads for the last five or six months, like you, it’s so long that I can’t remeber when I changed them last. But three relatively gentle trips around swinley and they are completely shot. The centre still has a couple of mms of material but the edges are scored back to the backing. I definitley am one of those brake less=go faster types but the conditions in places yesterday were bad enough for me to have to tiptoe in places more a case of brake less=fall off more!

Still thanks for the tips all – bulk buy of superstar sintered again for me.

It didn’t cut through the disc- just put a weakness into it. If there wasn’t a score on both rotors I would have put it down to a rouge piece of stone etc stuck in the pad. The rotors were lightweight ones to start with, agree than standard discs are more likely to cut through the pad!

I’ve got a set of 18 month old SS sintered pads that I replaced last night as they have been hanging on with what looks like a very thin layer for bloody weeks now. I have kevlar ones on t’other bike and they are very good..

matt – the point is it doesn’t happen to everyone who rides in these areas. Soil type clearly is one factor but as not everyone who rides in these ” high wear?” areas is affected there must be other factors at work as well

Superstar for me. Kevlar were good and lasted pretty well, but never felt quite as good as the sintered to me, but it’s a personal thing.

Pad changes every 2-3 months on the rear for me – 17st mainly in the Peak – 10hrs/week (ish). For pads ot last I need to do the bedding in thing – the 12 mile road ride from Manc up and down the hills to Marple is usually plenty.

I ride Swinley / Surrey Hills around once a week each and still get hundreds of miles out of pads. Bedding in must work. I always do it and they always last.

Member rockthreegozy – MemberNope- happened to both front and rear. Rear sheared off, front was removed before that happened. Pads effectively scored through the rotor.

rockthreegozy –
Member
It didn’t cut through the disc- just put a weakness into it.

So what actually happened 😉

Joolsburger & TJ – do you think this could be a rotor issue. I’m using G2 cleansweeps which have the main cutout through the centre of the rotor area which is where the pads look bedded in i.e. smooth and slightly polished, the outside of the pad never looks quite the same and this is where the heavy wear starts when the weather gets wet. I know from motor bike experience that discs with less cutouts [such as ap racing which only have 3 grooves to de glaze pads] provide better stopping power and lower wear. i wonder whether different rotors work better with the pads….

I’ve always used Disco pads (on Shimano brakes) and had no problems whatsoever. I swapped the original shimano pads out straight away as i found them incredibly noisy.

I know pads can fail from any manufacturer but having had a Superstar pad delaminate on a downhill, i wouldn’t buy from them again, despite it supposedly being a ‘bad batch’.

matt – I believe heat is the key issue. too cool = lots of wear. lots of things will have an effect.
riding style, disc drillings, pad formula, soil conditions, pad / disc clearance at least.

I believe the crucial thing is getting the brakes into the correct temp range for them to work properly

Another Thetford/Superstar sintered combo here. I checked them last night after having had them fitted for a couple of months. Hardly any signs of wear at all. They feel nice to brake with and thus far, have done everything well. 9/10

It’s a strange one. I know that my last set of pads were fitted in January 2010 and I’ve just replaced them in the last week.

In that time I have been to Wales, Swinley, South Downs, North Downs, Surrey Hills and average around 30-50 off road miles a week. Pads just don”t seem to wear.

Got Avid cleansweep at back and a standard Hope up front.

Personally I reckon if pads are only last one ride or a couple of weeks I reckon there is either an :-

1. Incompatibly between pads/brake and rotor.
2. Problem with Rotor
3. Bad set of Pads

I wore a set of avid juicy pads out in one ride but I was using an Hope floating saw rotor.

When I changed this back to an avid rotor they were fine.

I reckon the effect of the terrain is minimal on disc brakes although it obviously had a massive effect on rim brakes.

I’ve never had a problem with disc brake pads at swinley or any other sandy soil.

I get pads to last for atleast 11-12 months with Disco Organcic pads, the power is less when cold but as the warm up they get more powerfull. Ive rode these pads through last winter on the front and they were still like brand new coming into spring.
whereas the current Tektro standard pads in the back hardly last at all.

I use disco sintered on my elixirs and they last for ages. I use the same one on my shimano brakes and got equally good life out of them.