[Closed] Disk brake pad lifetime when commuting (contamination)

If the pads are not worn down then there is still life in them?

Have you tried adjusting the cables!?

I used to get this issue on my commute (before I moved too far away to ride into work). A lot of my journey in was fairly flat, and without too much stopping and starting, so I don’t think the pads and discs ever got a chance to get hot enough to burn off any contamination they picked up. Would usually mean that I’d kill a fresh set of pads in about a month with pretty much zero wear on them, just a gradual reduction in braking force and lots of squealing. No fun.

She needs to find a big hill, pedal down it, brake, and keep pedalling. That'll get the pads and rotors hot enough to burn off any contamination. I used to find I'd need to do this every 2-3 weeks when daily commuting.

The only time I have had a problem was after I bought a pair of hydrolics second hand off here and one of the pistons was leaking. Otherwise I find they last what feels like forever.

Wot scotroutes says - or try sanding the surfaces? Could be contamination from road muck or there is an effect where you get cold polishing of the pad surfaces if they are only used gently. which makes them less effective

Was theorising if being a big hairy-arsed bloke crushing the brake lever every day is good for the brake performance, as it must constantly refresh the pad and rotor surface as they wear? Whereas a dainty small person just caressing the brakes is going to create more opportunity for the pads to glaze over on the road with a contaminant.

I think this is true. ON the tandem we have big discs but are often just pootling around and the brakes are more effective after doing a big descent and getting them nice and hot- I used to get this on my motorbike. I lent it to a pal and he gave it back to me with the brakes working much better - simply because his riding style used the brakes harder thus getting rid of the polished surface.

A very common problem on bikes commuted on in all weather whether cable or hydralic.

Replaced countless sets of pads and cleaned loads of contaminated disks over my time in the shop.

Used to happen to my bb7s

Not been an issue on my Hayes cable brakes because I've stopped commuting onntthw road and using cycle paths instead so nothingnother than dog poo to contaminate

There's also an inference that smaller rotors would result in hotter/less contaminated brakes. Unlikely to be a solution for the OP though.

~When commuting I didn't get this - but I would be braking hard several times a trip. sometimes I got squealing from contamination but a couple of hard stops cured that ( or riding along holding the brake on just lightly below the point the squealing occurred)

Disc brakes need to get hot occasionally to keep up best performance

My shimano road discs always seem ok. Bit squeely in the wet until you get them hot but plenty of power always (so far). Tend to ride it 2 or 3 times a week on average in all weathers bar heavy snow which is barely ever in the UK.

I’ve got one hill in the way to /
from work when I go the short way - maybe that helps as it is quite steep and requires a fair amount of braking.

I'd suggest taking your big hairy arse out on her bike and bed them in!

Interesting. After 4 years / 10,000+ miles, I’ve just replaced the first set of pads (TRP Hy/Rd) on my commuter (In fact, they weren’t even completely worn, but on Hy/Reds when there’s <1mm of pad the auto-reach adjust stops working). My commute’s quite hilly though so the brakes get used properly at least a few times per ride.

Take the pads out and clean them by scrubbing the contact pads against each other with washing up liquid. Then scrub the pads with a nail brush to clean off any gunk road from the rest of the pad. If the rotors are very dirty (in the gaps) take them off and clean with nailbrush\washing up liquid, otherwise just give them a wipe with with white spirts/isopropyl. Give the Calipers a good wipe with white spirits. This should do the trick. I have to do this every 3 months or so and I have a lot of hills on my route. Sign it needs to be done is the brakes getting very weak but extremely noisy. After doing this take the bike and jam the brakes on a few times times to clear the pads and put a glaze back on the surface to get them performing again.

PS, if this doesn’t give a good improvement then heat the pad contact area with a gas flame (I use a camping stove) until smoke coming off isn’t black.

This has never failed to recover pads for me.

I honestly don’t know what my pad life is like, because I can’t remember when I last needed to change them. Better have a check, see what they’re like.

Have you tried differnt caliper mounts and swapping the pads around?

My commute brakes have always given pretty good performance for what they are. I generally like to brake hard enough that I need to shift my weight back and push into the bars quite heavily, sometimes causing the rear wheel to skid or attempt stoppies and endos. Rear wheel hop practice also good for encouraging brake performance. I'm under 70kg. HTH!

I think I've made a name for myself moaning about squeeling disc brakes on here, fairly sure it's because I'm a 'featherer' too, and the bike with discs on it is the one least likely to see regular hills.

I think the camping stove solution is the best one, give them a burn every month!

Is she running Shimano hydraulics?

If so, that may be your problem.

(I bought my commuter second-hand, 2 years on I still haven't touched the pads, they seem fine though).

Shimano SLX hydraulics on my commuter, 180/160 discs. No major big stops and used to get deterioration in braking ability. Swapped to Shimano organic/resin pads (instead of Uberbike semi-sintered) and learned to ensure I give them the occasional BIG stop, and no problems since. Much of my routes are on gravel/loose surface which doesn’t help with big stops - I guess I mostly feather them.

Is she running Shimano hydraulics?

I wish - needs droptop levers for small hands, and I don't think these are widely available on a hydraulic line outside of some bespoke race setups. She is running some basic cable disks that do my head in, but do at least work when set up initially.

Thks for the replies - seems like a common enough issue, I'll let her know to try and get the brakes blazing every once in a while.

Definitely clean/heat them every so often! I used to commute down a mixture of muddy canal paths and roads during the winter. One wet evening, I came down a 30 mph hill and almost into the back of a car when my BB7's with Clarke's sintered pads decided they weren't going to work very well. Normally they work fine, but less so when covered in mud, grit and other crap, so had to use my feet instead, Flintstone style. Definitely needed new undies after that.

I also have problems with pads glazing on my Shimano road brakes. I have a 20 minute commute each way, with no heavy braking. Most of the time the brakes work fine, but eventually they lose their bite. They still work if I pull hard, but very poorly, and with lots of squealing when they finally bite. I can restore the performance by sanding the pad surface, and sometimes I have to rough up the discs a bit as well.
I can't identify exactly what causes the issue, but I think it tends to happen after an extended period of dry weather commuting. However, at other times it appears that a wet ride triggers the problem the following day, possibly due to crap getting thrown up onto the pads?
I don't remember having the same issue with BB7s or HyRds, so I wonder if it's also something to do with the Shimano organic compound, which is all I have used on the hydros. I need to experiment with some other pad materials to see if that helps.

My issues were all with BB7s, tried both sintered and resin pads (both Avid) and the same results.

FWIW, popping the pads into a very hot oven for an hour or so seems to work too, if combined with cleaning the rotors.

5 years and 17,991km on the alligator pads in my BB7 brakes on the commuter. The stock Avids lasted around 8,000 km.

I do get quite fast pad wear if it's wet (I actually fitted a sort of fork gutter to avoid the worst of the muck funneling into the caliper which helped a lot but it's still notable that they will wear out once or twice a winter, but never in summer), but as others have said the lack of opportunity to get proper heat into a set of disc brakes leaves them pretty squeally and lacking any bite.

I think the grit inherent in mountain biking helps avoid squeal and glazing a bit, too.

My commuter with BB7's is great, I do have a nice hill to deal with and get some decent braking in.

My wife's with Shimano hydraulics is now a weak and squeally mess. I'm considering servicing the calipers to check for any microscopic leaks but otherwise she's due clean rotors and new pads.