Bike eats brakes
Discussion
Hi,
My MTB seems to chew through its brakes rather quickly ( managed half of follow the dog in cannock chase ) before i managed to loose all braking front and rear using centered metallic pads.
organics are worse as i only seem to manage about an hour or so before failure.
am i setting my brakes up wrong, or should i dump the setup the bike came with and throw on some canti's ?
My MTB seems to chew through its brakes rather quickly ( managed half of follow the dog in cannock chase ) before i managed to loose all braking front and rear using centered metallic pads.
organics are worse as i only seem to manage about an hour or so before failure.
am i setting my brakes up wrong, or should i dump the setup the bike came with and throw on some canti's ?
are they oem pads or internet cheapies??
Last season we (ex pats living in the alps) bought bulk pads off the internet and were going through them stupidly fast.... I then put back some oem ones and the life was a lot longer... so same set up, same rider, same trails the only difference being manufacturer of pads...
Last season we (ex pats living in the alps) bought bulk pads off the internet and were going through them stupidly fast.... I then put back some oem ones and the life was a lot longer... so same set up, same rider, same trails the only difference being manufacturer of pads...
SystemParanoia said:
yeah discs.
although im inclined to believe theyre pretty crap as their cable operated.
im hoping its just poor adjustment ( although i have them set so they dont rub.
do you reccon some new discs should cure me ?
oh yeah, i do tend to aim for the muddyest and wettest trails
Hmmmm....me too, and I've never had this issue. (Note pic - dried up, but muddy). I would perhaps check for oil and contamination on your discs. It could be you are just getting this on your pads and therefore it's stopping your braking.although im inclined to believe theyre pretty crap as their cable operated.
im hoping its just poor adjustment ( although i have them set so they dont rub.
do you reccon some new discs should cure me ?
oh yeah, i do tend to aim for the muddyest and wettest trails
Hell's Bells!
I ride at Afan/Cwm every weekend and they're notoriously gritty and of course being in Wales, very wet. My pads (£20 FOR 4 pairs, Superstar jobs) last 2-3 months. Dang, even riding in Morzine on the wettest of days I'm getting 2-3 full DH days out of a set.
I've never used cable pads, are you wearing them down to close to the metal? I guess cable discs can't auto-adjust like Hydros.
I wouldn't go to Canti's, last time I was using them the bloody pads were lasting no time at all and they need constant fiddling to get them to work. If you fancy a change, try a set of Avid Juicy 5's, not the flashiest set of stoppers in the world, but they're cheap and reliable, you can get the pads anywhere and they'll be at least twice as good as a set of cable brakes.
I ride at Afan/Cwm every weekend and they're notoriously gritty and of course being in Wales, very wet. My pads (£20 FOR 4 pairs, Superstar jobs) last 2-3 months. Dang, even riding in Morzine on the wettest of days I'm getting 2-3 full DH days out of a set.
I've never used cable pads, are you wearing them down to close to the metal? I guess cable discs can't auto-adjust like Hydros.
I wouldn't go to Canti's, last time I was using them the bloody pads were lasting no time at all and they need constant fiddling to get them to work. If you fancy a change, try a set of Avid Juicy 5's, not the flashiest set of stoppers in the world, but they're cheap and reliable, you can get the pads anywhere and they'll be at least twice as good as a set of cable brakes.
beanbag said:
SystemParanoia said:
yeah discs.
although im inclined to believe theyre pretty crap as their cable operated.
im hoping its just poor adjustment ( although i have them set so they dont rub.
do you reccon some new discs should cure me ?
oh yeah, i do tend to aim for the muddyest and wettest trails
Hmmmm....me too, and I've never had this issue. (Note pic - dried up, but muddy). I would perhaps check for oil and contamination on your discs. It could be you are just getting this on your pads and therefore it's stopping your braking.although im inclined to believe theyre pretty crap as their cable operated.
im hoping its just poor adjustment ( although i have them set so they dont rub.
do you reccon some new discs should cure me ?
oh yeah, i do tend to aim for the muddyest and wettest trails
STOP!
Your not bedding your pads in.
Theres 2 types of friction that can be applied to produce a braking force - the first is abrasive friction, the second is adhesive friction (i beleive these are the correct terms, someone may correct me).
Anyway - what you are getting is the first one. You are fitting new pads, then going straight out and riding through all the s
t. And yes, your pads are wearing right down. They are acting like sandpaper on your muddy filthy rotors. Thus, they last only a few miles.
What you need, is adhesive friction.
Clean your rotors properly. Use a bit of emery cloth to take off any glaze. Buy new pads. Once you've done that, we'll assume were starting with an 'as new' setup.
You now need to bed the pads and disc in together. Go onto a dry road, and ride along for 100mtr, pulling hard on the brakes but pushing hard on the pedals - IE creating a st load of heat. Do this back and forth for ten minutes. Then stonk up to speed and don some hard (HARD!) stops. What you are doing here is putting the discs and pads through a proper heat cycle. done properly they will be getting very hot (000's of degrees).
Some of the pad material will have been transferred over to the surface of the disc.
Now, when you brake, is is the pad material on the pad, ADHERING to the pad material on the disc rotor, which causes adjhesive friction, slowing you down. Now, your pads should last much longer.
This is why at many races/enduro events people go through st loads of pads. Once their original set is worn out, they dont have chance to bed the new ones in. This is where the stories of people doing a set of pads in one lpa of Mountain Mayhem or whatever come from.
Your not bedding your pads in.
Theres 2 types of friction that can be applied to produce a braking force - the first is abrasive friction, the second is adhesive friction (i beleive these are the correct terms, someone may correct me).
Anyway - what you are getting is the first one. You are fitting new pads, then going straight out and riding through all the s
t. And yes, your pads are wearing right down. They are acting like sandpaper on your muddy filthy rotors. Thus, they last only a few miles. What you need, is adhesive friction.
Clean your rotors properly. Use a bit of emery cloth to take off any glaze. Buy new pads. Once you've done that, we'll assume were starting with an 'as new' setup.
You now need to bed the pads and disc in together. Go onto a dry road, and ride along for 100mtr, pulling hard on the brakes but pushing hard on the pedals - IE creating a s
t load of heat. Do this back and forth for ten minutes. Then stonk up to speed and don some hard (HARD!) stops. What you are doing here is putting the discs and pads through a proper heat cycle. done properly they will be getting very hot (000's of degrees).Some of the pad material will have been transferred over to the surface of the disc.
Now, when you brake, is is the pad material on the pad, ADHERING to the pad material on the disc rotor, which causes adjhesive friction, slowing you down. Now, your pads should last much longer.
This is why at many races/enduro events people go through s
t loads of pads. Once their original set is worn out, they dont have chance to bed the new ones in. This is where the stories of people doing a set of pads in one lpa of Mountain Mayhem or whatever come from. 
but the pic was taken down in sandwell valley. cannock is sooo much better and fastersnotrag said:
This is why at many races/enduro events people go through st loads of pads. Once their original set is worn out, they dont have chance to bed the new ones in. This is where the stories of people doing a set of pads in one lpa of Mountain Mayhem or whatever come from.
Thanks. That's quite interesting. I understood about bedding new pads in to make them work better, but I wasn't aware that they would wear out otherwise.t loads of pads. Once their original set is worn out, they dont have chance to bed the new ones in. This is where the stories of people doing a set of pads in one lpa of Mountain Mayhem or whatever come from. It would presumably make sense for me to "bed-in" the spare set of new pads that I carry in my pack. (Plus, it sounds a bit "racy")
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