Brake pads - which ones and what brand?

Peter1979

Member
Jun 7, 2021
75
28
South West uk
Brake pads are a bit of a mystery to me.

I've tended to go uber brake pads and usually Kevlar but I tried an eBay one, N&T in sintered. To be honest, the jury is out on these as I'm two rides in and they have worn very quickly.

So my question is, what pads do you use (resin, ceramic, sintered etc) for what weather/application and which brands do you trust?
 

apac

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
Aug 14, 2019
1,326
1,173
S.Wales
I'd like to try some ceramic but can't get them for toffee right now. Just bedded in some N&T semi metallic. What can I say? they haven't made a noise yet. Not really given them a proper bashing. Most 'ardcore' muscle flexers on here will say sintered.
 

Healy

Active member
Oct 4, 2020
342
243
Forest of dean
Hi peter

you have the same bike as me. I have tried a few brands and have settled on nukeproof sintered ones. About £10 a set. Made the brakes seem much better
 

DtEW

Active member
Dec 8, 2020
206
190
Bay Area, California
I couldn’t get Shimano metallic pads (both D02S and N04C) to behave with the BR-M7120 and RT-MT800 (203mm) on my Levo's front end, so I went with MTX Gold ceramic pads. As manifested on my front end, the Shimanos and MTX Golds behaved as inverses of each other: the Shimano would work for a second-or-two, then transition into sustained screaming that devolved into resonance against the disc to significantly reduce braking power. In contrast, the MTX Golds would squeal for a second-or two when they’re cold, and then transition into good (but not quite great) bite that did not seem to be affected by heat within the range I've been able to put them through.

Prophylactic against the obvious: yes, I spent a lot of effort and-then-some trying to bed-in the Shimano pads, sanding both pads and disc down, repeat, to no avail. It's not easy getting one's hands on N04Cs over the pandemic, and I did try quite hard to make them work.

The Shimano D02Ss (and presumably the similar N04C) works fine for me for rear duty, which is where they are now. When my significant other drags her Levo's rear brake too much (our bikes are configured similarly), the D02Ss let her know it.
 

Sander23

Active member
Aug 28, 2020
740
457
Belgium
Some brake pad question here: so I have magura mt4 brakes with original magura 7.performance pads.

My pads had this thing on the downside of the pad where they seem to "brake off" (don't know if that's the correct word ) in tiny pieces. Is this a normal thing underbrake pads?
 

apac

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
Aug 14, 2019
1,326
1,173
S.Wales
Some brake pad question here: so I have magura mt4 brakes with original magura 7.performance pads.

My pads had this thing on the downside of the pad where they seem to "brake off" (don't know if that's the correct word ) in tiny pieces. Is this a normal thing underbrake pads?
As they are organic pads there is advice to make shore they are not left wet when not in use as they can become soft and crumble. This is purely what I've read, Theory not experience.
 

apac

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
Aug 14, 2019
1,326
1,173
S.Wales
Brake pads are a bit of a mystery to me.

I've tended to go uber brake pads and usually Kevlar but I tried an eBay one, N&T in sintered. To be honest, the jury is out on these as I'm two rides in and they have worn very quickly.

So my question is, what pads do you use (resin, ceramic, sintered etc) for what weather/application and which brands do you trust?

sintered pads must be bedded in properly, and need a lot of bedding in to work properly. I think Kevlar in comparison need very little bedding in as they are soft compound.
 

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