Brake Pad Bulk Buy

jeffers696

Hi,

Im off to Morzine in the summer, never been before but i kind of think i might need a few spare sets of pads. A mate and I have the same brakes (avid ultimate) so i was gona see if i could buy pads in bulk and hopefully save a few quid.

Any body know where i could be bulk and how many spare sets i might need?

Cheers Paul

newbiketime

All depends on your pads and your riding style. When I am over there I for a week I normally only take the one spare set and dont always use them. But I tend to be on Shimano or Hope brakes so it may not be the same. I would recommend you stick with good quality metal pads. Avoid most of these cheap brands or even none brand pads as many are extremely poor.

stomith

I buy 4 pairs at a time from superstar £22 i think they were.

http://www.superstarcomponents.com/

Seem to do the job at a huge saving.

jeffers696

Cheers stomith, im a bit confused by all the compound stuff the super star has 3 compounds and this is what it says

Organic - High power soft pad for great feel and power, excellent bite from cold

Sintered – Hard pads for long life in abrasive condition, extra long life

Kevlar – Soft race pad for ultimate power but Kevlar fibres give much longer life than Organic

Never heard of Kevlar compound before. Organic is the best for DH im guessing?

Matt N

+1 for superstars, i'm on kevlar ones at the moment and they're just as good if not better than the ones that came with the brakes originally

kastle92

Never heard of Kevlar compound before. Organic is the best for DH im guessing?[/quote]

i use superstar kevalar and get brilliant braking performance and would be great for dh as they are a soft compound but still last long time, i find best using them in dry i would go for different pad in wet but they not to bad in wet conditions.

i would use kevalar over organic for dh

Northwind

The kevlar is basically smack in the middle, best overall choice IMO, very impressed with mine.

SuperstarComponents.com

if you are after a bunch for you and your friends we have a 10+ rate in the special offer section - special offer B.

Neil (superstar)

stubs

Kevlar or organic is fine for you but dont use sintered for downhill. My hardtail has Superstar sintered and they work great in normal use.

Did a long road downhill section yesterday that invoved 3 hard pulls for tight corners we were touching 50 mph on the straight bits and by the time I got to the bottom my brakes were nearly on fire with the lever coming right back to the bar. The front disc went a dark brown colour and had buckled, it cooled down making loud pinging noises and they had lost power which only came back gradually during the rest of the ride. My mates on Superstar organic pads had red hot brakes but didnt have the same problem.

Checked my brakes this morning and the pad backing plates have turned a lovely deep blue colour and the pad material has turned purple

peter413

Kevlar pads for summer, Sintered for winter for DHing.

I ain't no DHer but thats what I run to great effect (I can still cook brakes so I am doing a good test of them and they last really well)

peter413

stubs wrote:

Did a long road downhill section yesterday that invoved 3 hard pulls for tight corners we were touching 50 mph on the straight bits and by the time I got to the bottom my brakes were nearly on fire with the lever coming right back to the bar. The front disc went a dark brown colour and had buckled, it cooled down making loud pinging noises and they had lost power which only came back gradually during the rest of the ride. My mates on Superstar organic pads had red hot brakes but didnt have the same problem.

Checked my brakes this morning and the pad backing plates have turned a lovely deep blue colour and the pad material has turned purple

What brakes were they?

stubs

peter413 wrote:

stubs wrote:

Did a long road downhill section yesterday that invoved 3 hard pulls for tight corners we were touching 50 mph on the straight bits and by the time I got to the bottom my brakes were nearly on fire with the lever coming right back to the bar. The front disc went a dark brown colour and had buckled, it cooled down making loud pinging noises and they had lost power which only came back gradually during the rest of the ride. My mates on Superstar organic pads had red hot brakes but didnt have the same problem.

Checked my brakes this morning and the pad backing plates have turned a lovely deep blue colour and the pad material has turned purple

What brakes were they?

Shimano XT M765 Brilliant brakes had them for about 4 years now absolutely bullet proof I just fitted them bled them and that was it never touched them since apart from changing the pads and giving them a good clean occassionally

peter413

Some of it, not all of it, may have been the fact the brakes were mineral oil. Don't like the stuff, cooked my dads deore at Inners even though my Stroker Ryde was fine.

I was only using the Deore because it had more modulation than the Hayes and since dad isn't allowed to ride at the moment...

Northwind

It's not the oil, if the pads have burned up too then the fluid isn't the issue. Sounds like there's just a hell of a lot of heat in the system here, so maybe rotor size, maybe (no offence) dragging brakes? Even a very gentle drag adds heat/prevents cooling, my brother managed to cook my XTs a bit on a fairly ordinary mile long descent by riding down it with the back brake on all the time Usualyl they barely even get warm.

There's only really 3 factors- how much heat, how fast you can get rid of it, and how well the parts deal with it, and cooking brakes is a balance of the 3 but it sounds like in this case it was too much heat more than how they deal with the heat.

gonga

I thought sintered pads dealt with heat better than the organic pads? :?

stubs

Northwind wrote:

maybe (no offence) dragging brakes?

How do I drag the front brake and touch 50 mph at the same time :?

Any brake system that has just come screaming down the dale from Swindalehead to Brough on the B6276 is going to get very very hot. Its a 1,000 foot drop with some bends that get a bit tight at the speeds we were going. I was completely spinning out the 44 / 11 gear on the straights and just tucking in as much as possible. It was lovely overtaking a car on the way down I bet the driver nearly dropped a load when 3 bikes went past him in close formation

Northwind

stubs wrote:

Northwind wrote:

maybe (no offence) dragging brakes?

How do I drag the front brake and touch 50 mph at the same time :?

Any brake system that has just come screaming down the dale from Swindalehead to Brough on the B6276 is going to get very very hot.

But apparently your mates were fine. So something's not right, and a little bit of extra friction is an obvious explanation. It's very easy to drag your brakes and still make good speed, it makes very little difference to how fast you go if you just have them fractionally engaged, but that's still enough to heat them up. But equally, like I said, you might want to think about bigger rotors. Another thought would be if you're heavier than them, or perhaps just faster and so having to brake more?

peter413

gonga wrote:

I thought sintered pads dealt with heat better than the organic pads? :?

They do but they also work better at higher temperatures so the brakes get hotter.

Dirtydog11

gonga wrote:

I thought sintered pads dealt with heat better than the organic pads? :?

Sintered create more heat (more friction) than organic which can cause problems. Organic create less heat but all have an maximum operating temperature so will eventually fade.

Its unfortunate manufactures don't publish the maximum/minimum operating temperatures for their pads it would be useful to know, some pads don't work very well when cold.