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Hi All,

I have recently come to the conclusion that the pads on my XTR brakes are contaminated. They squeal like a piggy and just dont bite properly.

I have sanded the pads down, cleaned the rotors checked there are no leaks etc and i still sound like a 4 tonne truck.


I have just bought some new pads and at a cost of £70 i dont really want to ruin these pads.

I was concerned that i hadn't bedded them in properly and that they had glazed over, and am now wondering if my brakes were on a road to ruin before i knew it.

I am running 160mm Hope floating rotors and XTR brakes. The brakes are the new 2011 range and part of this ICE tech thingy that shimano have introduced.

Has anyone got some good advice on how to bed the pads in???

I have been told two different techniques and not sure what is right and wrong.

Technique A

Do about 15-20 sprints and come to a sudden and controlled stop. this way it bites the pad in and doesnt glaze the pad.

Technique B

Do 15-20m at walking pace with the brakes on so the pad builds into the disc and after each one put water onto the pad and disc. to cool it.

Any body able to help!?

Thanks,

Matt

Once your pads get oil or whatever on them the suck it up all the way through so sanding n that would make no difference.

Id go with A - it seems to work for me. I don't usually go that crazy and just do 5 or six hard shops to bind the surface of the pad together and that seems to work well. Never had a pad disintegrate on me - mainly using formula the ones.

TBH sometimes don't even bother and as long as ur not riding in grit and slate the pads will sort themselves - this time of year a couple run down Danbury in the dry will have them sorted.

XTR pads are pretty expensive eh!

Go with A, it's all about building high temperature into the pad and disk.

I've never seen anyone driving down the road after a pad change on their car throwing buckets of water over the wheels.

A works for me, did it at Danbury last week. 5-6 stops in the car park and then a few goes on the runs - sorted.

Bear in mind that if you swap between organic and sintered pads, you should change the rotor too. At least that's Avid's advice, but probably the same across the board.

Cool thanks guys.

I am going to clean the rotors with surgical spirit (rubbing alcohol) as i have read that this is a good way to clean them, but after they are clean should i key the rotors with sandpaper to help them bind???

Surprisingly A was given to me by a mate i ride with and B was by a local bike shop so glad i asked!

I am using the metal XTR pads with cooling fins rather than the resin, mainly as they seem to last better but also becuase thats what is in the brakes already to avoid any rotor issues.

Thanks again.

Never use sandpaper !
(you can sand them down but then I would really suggest using a lathe to make sure to do it really accurate)



Alcohol will do or if you are lazy you can use Car disk brake cleaner. but make sure you don´t spray it on the rest of your bike since its quite agressive. don´t sand pads or discs but make sure your discs are just clean and straight (not bended etc). the purpose of bedding the brakes in is to wear the pad _ disc combo so they are completely adjusted to each other to have maximum braking surface. sanding one or both will not have the same results

I use hope sh1tshifter to clean the pads which even managed to reduced the annoying noise of the Avid juicy brakes.



resin brakes better but it will will fade much quicker at hight temperatures since the resin particles decomposes differently at high temperature so if you brake a lot metal is the way to go

Ive never really bedded any of my brakes in.

On the trials bike I use metylates spirits to clean them and water to bed them in.

On the DH bike Ive never bothered. 1 run down a mountain will work fine