Which pads should I buy?

reaperactual

Looking for new front and rear pads. Have used stock resin pads until they wear out then usually go for sintered, happy with them but wondered about a ceramic compound set for a change.

Which ones should I choose based on the usual criteria but I suppose mainly pad life and performance for this time of year? Does ceramic compare equally to sintered in wet and muddy conditions?

I normally wear out rear pads faster than the fronts so maybe use different compounds on front and back?

Any thoughts, opinions and feedback appreciated, thanks!

mully79

I use sintered. Since you fixed your brakes you'll probably not need so many.
im still very slowly going through all the part worn sets i put to one side before i fixed mine.

reaperactual

Yeah dodgy rear brake was probably a factor but tend to do a lot of trail braking too.

A few weeks on not sure rear caliper rebuild has worked unfortunately, piston started sticking again so bought an unused M7100 on eBay also replaced the front with the same.

Front resin pads are badly contaminated and squealing so put old worn pads in to test and can't understand why I have double the amount of lever travel now?

Hydros are supposed to self adjust so don't get why the change in bite point with worn pads.

Maybe I need to invest in a set of Hopes except their expensive and not keen on them aesthetically but getting hacked off with these ones Pal that's for sure. 🤬

steve_sordy

I've had hydraulic brakes for years and some really good ones too from time to time. As the pads wear, I have always had to adjust the lever travel.

And that bite point adjust on XT brakes? I have never managed to get that to do anything at all.

mully79

Need to stop that trail braking malarky, its just an expensive comfort blanket.

My shimano m615's will be ok for a while then suddenly i'll have to start pumping them when the bikes been upside down or in the car. Really are frustrating. Shimanos dont like being upside down for whatever reason.

i have some hayes hf9's from 15 years ago that are still in use and are the same now as they were when i bought them and they work upside down.

reaperactual

steve_sordy said:

I've had hydraulic brakes for years and some really good ones too from time to time. As the pads wear, I have always had to adjust the lever travel.

And that bite point adjust on XT brakes? I have never managed to get that to do anything at all.

My levers have those snake bite security grub screws but seems easy enough to add this feature. I'll probably give it a try and even if it doesn't help it won't do any harm. Thanks Steve it's a good idea to explore.👍

I'll take it this is normal that bite point changes, maybe more obvious and stark when swapping instantly from new to worn pads?

Had entry level M395's for around 4 years and worked perfectly just not powerful enough so buy more expensive brakes and loads of issues.

As discussed in other posts, what is going on with Shimano quality. Seems to be lots of leaky pistons complaints and so on?🤔

reaperactual

mully79 said:

Need to stop that trail braking malarky, its just an expensive comfort blanket.

My shimano m615's will be ok for a while then suddenly i'll have to start pumping them when the bikes been upside down or in the car. Really are frustrating. Shimanos dont like being upside down for whatever reason.

i have some hayes hf9's from 15 years ago that are still in use and are the same now as they were when i bought them and they work upside down.

Lol! Your right of course mully, picked up this bad trail braking habit that needs to stop, am working on it.

After I do a bleed I usually turn upside down as assume a proper bleed would mean no air trapped
if not needing to pump the brakes when upright again. Thought all hydro's would usually need to be pumped after being upside down?

May reluctantly look into different brands and try alternatives.

Just want fit and forget performance with average maintenance schedule like my previous basic, cheap Shimano's.🙏 Cheers for the input Mate.👍

reaperactual

Have bought some Vandorm V-comp ceramic pads and will see how they compare to sintered.

Also ordered some U-Bits to convert levers and enable free stroke adjustment after some research and watching a YouTube clip.

Hoping for some kind of noticeable effect for acheiving shorter lever throw.🤞

reaperactual

Update: New pads still haven't arrived yet so still running worn sintered front brake pads.

In the meantime I was able to remove the security grub screw (also referred to as snake bite, pig nose, spanner head) using the U4 sized spanner head bit I ordered.

Although very sceptical (after a lot of other research giving reports of this feature being ineffective) it has worked for my SLX levers to my surprise.

I refitted one spare 4mm X 15mm ish pan head bolt from a bar grip locking collar and the front lever moved around 1.5 inches towards the bars when fully screwed in.

Once I reset the lever to it's original position using the reach adjustment happy to report a 1.5ish inches reduction in lever travel to bite point!😃

Now the front brake's (with worn pads) lever travels is now less than the rear with brand new pads.

Going to order two new and slightly shorter 4x12mm grub screws so both brakes have no bolt heads visible. SLX's to XT's for £3.50💰🤘 Back to being a Shimano brake fan again.

Thanks again all for your help Mully and Steve, as always much appreciated.😎👍