How long does disc brake pads last?

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PoorCyclist
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by PoorCyclist

On my gravel bike with OEM resin pads only last about 350 miles until less than 1mm pad left, but I change the out just in case (don't want to run out of pads suddenly)

I was wondering what kind of miles are we seeing for road use. I know after a major descent of 1000 meters vertical I can notice the pad thickness is decreased. Went from rubbing to no rubbing.

I would like to buy some spare pads but don't want to buy too many if they dont wear fast on the road.

Mocs123
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by Mocs123

The real answer is it depends, but I tend to get about 2,500 miles (4,000km) out of my pads give or take - now do a fair bit of climbing and descending but no singular descent of more than about 1,000ft (333meters) at 9% so your mileage may vary.
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bikeboy1tr
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by bikeboy1tr

I have 3100km on my Campy Record pads and not alot of wear just yet but I am in a flatish area but the hills I do go to have only 100meters gain so nothing to crazy.
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TobinHatesYou
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by TobinHatesYou

I think I have over 4000mi on my SwissStop Disc E pads, but I ride in groups with not a lot of braking...even when descending I'm only doing the bare minimum amount of braking. There is still tons of life left in the pads too, I might get ~7000mi out of them.

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Cannoli
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by Cannoli

4-5k miles on the road pads, 2-3k miles on gravel. Road pads are Swiss Stop EXO Therm2, gravel Shimano LO5A. The wife gets a bit more mileage out of hers, but she weighs as much as a hummingbird.
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TobinHatesYou
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by TobinHatesYou

Cannoli wrote:
Wed May 11, 2022 11:48 pm
4-5k miles on the road pads, 2-3k miles on gravel. Road pads are Swiss Stop EXO Therm2, gravel Shimano LO5A. The wife gets a bit more mileage out of hers, but she weighs as much as a hummingbird.

The E / ExoTherm semi-sintered compound is so good. It does get a bit squealy in the rain, but the quieter RS resin compound simply doesn't last long enough once the weather gets bad.

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Cannoli
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by Cannoli

TobinHatesYou wrote:
Thu May 12, 2022 12:01 am
Cannoli wrote:
Wed May 11, 2022 11:48 pm
4-5k miles on the road pads, 2-3k miles on gravel. Road pads are Swiss Stop EXO Therm2, gravel Shimano LO5A. The wife gets a bit more mileage out of hers, but she weighs as much as a hummingbird.

The E / ExoTherm semi-sintered compound is so good. It does get a bit squealy in the rain, but the quieter RS resin compound simply doesn't last long enough once the weather gets bad.
Agreed. They are great pads but crazy loud in the rain. No worries though as I try to avoid the wet stuff if possible. I don't mind if it starts raining after starting in the dry, but I generally can't motivate myself enough to start off in the rain.
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ms6073
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by ms6073

PoorCyclist wrote:
Wed May 11, 2022 5:12 pm
On my gravel bike with OEM resin pads only last about 350 miles until less than 1mm pad left
Resin pads can see excessive wear in very dusty or wet conditions as the gritty sand acts as an abrasive in the dry and is super agressive when it is wet/muddy. I wore down a brand new set of resin pads in a 60-minute muddy CX race several years ago but this was exacerbated by the fact that I was using highly vented Ashima Ai2 Air Rotors which trapped the slurry in the vents while racing.
Last edited by ms6073 on Thu May 12, 2022 8:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Vespasianus
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by Vespasianus

PoorCyclist wrote:
Wed May 11, 2022 5:12 pm
On my gravel bike with OEM resin pads only last about 350 miles until less than 1mm pad left, but I change the out just in case (don't want to run out of pads suddenly)

I was wondering what kind of miles are we seeing for road use. I know after a major descent of 1000 meters vertical I can notice the pad thickness is decreased. Went from rubbing to no rubbing.

I would like to buy some spare pads but don't want to buy too many if they dont wear fast on the road.
I get more than that on my MTB (Shimano). Something is not right.

I have over 5000+ miles on my current Campag road disc brakes with lots of life left.
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Cemicar
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by Cemicar

Nobody yet mention the front and rear difference. Unless you use the rear brake 2 or 3 times more, the front pad has to wear out much earlier (2000km or such).

TobinHatesYou
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by TobinHatesYou

Cemicar wrote:
Thu May 12, 2022 5:02 pm
Nobody yet mention the front and rear difference. Unless you use the rear brake 2 or 3 times more, the front pad has to wear out much earlier (2000km or such).

It depends on how you ride. Even though I live on a big hill, most of my distance covered is fairly flat and in fast group rides or races. I try to ride as efficiently as possible and my brake pads wear at about the same rate.

Bfriesen
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by Bfriesen

I just replaced my front brake pads for the the first time today. They were getting very thin and definitly needed to be replaced, but I bought the bike last year and have done 15000km so far. But same as others, mostly flat fast riding with very little decending in this area. Pads are Shimano K03s.
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Aeo
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by Aeo

SwissStop Disc E pads on the rear: 13,900 km / 8600 mi - still going
On the heavy side and lots of elevation, no wet rides
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ABogle
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by ABogle

I can normally get 4 thousand kms out of the front and a lot more from the rear. Note that I live in london and for my favourite and most frequent rides last around 6 hours of which about 2 hours is in quite built up areas with a lot of braking. But then again we don't have proper descents in southern england.

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Ritsuke
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by Ritsuke

My last set was around 6k km, the set before that - and during the harsh winter months - around 3k ...
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