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Pad life for Elixirs?

1K views 16 replies 10 participants last post by  brent878 
#1 ·
I noticed this weekend during an extremely muddy rainy ride that my rear brake pull was really long. I stopped using the rear brake - it was really making a grindy noise. When I go thome I took the pads off and they are toast. This is after only about 250 - 300 miles since new. How long should the pads last? I cant imagine changing pads every 300 miles.
 
#3 ·
AlexRandall said:
All depends on how many muddy, rainy rides you do....and of course how often you drag the brakes. Some soil types will chew through pads v.quickly if its muddy
I dont ride in the really muddy stuff too often. This was the first ride that I was riding consistently through wet and mud since i got the bike. Just curious..
 
#5 ·
It depends on the weather conditions and the pads you use

In Winter with rain and mud
- if you go to the track with organic pads they will be gone before you get home...
- In case you go for sintered then you get more aggressive and less progressive braking power but the pads last around 400 miles:thumbsup:

In the summer ...always organic and basically you can get 600 - 800 miles per pair of pads
 
#6 ·
ANTTEI said:
It depends on the weather conditions and the pads you use

In Winter with rain and mud
- if you go to the track with organic pads they will be gone before you get home...
- In case you go for sintered then you get more aggressive and less progressive braking power but the pads last around 400 miles:thumbsup:

In the summer ...always organic and basically you can get 600 - 800 miles per pair of pads
I use sintered on my motorcycle and they do increase braking power by a large margin. I may just buy some more of the ones that came with the brakes. They are only 17 bucks.
 
#8 ·
I had elixirs for about 4 months this year. In these 4 months I replaced brake pads almost every week. I had the best luck with the metallic pads from avid, I also used the avid organics (total crap if you ask me) jagwire, EBC golds (also very good), and some others.
I ended up warrantying the brakes and selling them after blowing up both master cylinders.

(these brakes were ridden primarily on my 22lb xc bike (I weigh about 150lbs) and then spent some time on my 25lb slalom bike)
Matt
 
#9 ·
grnbkr said:
I had elixirs for about 4 months this year. In these 4 months I replaced brake pads almost every week. I had the best luck with the metallic pads from avid, I also used the avid organics (total crap if you ask me) jagwire, EBC golds (also very good), and some others.
I ended up warrantying the brakes and selling them after blowing up both master cylinders.

(these brakes were ridden primarily on my 22lb xc bike (I weigh about 150lbs) and then spent some time on my 25lb slalom bike)
Matt
Wow.. How many miles a week were you logging?
 
#10 ·
I was doing something in the neighborhood of 150 miles per week. So it doesn't seem too in reasonable based on what you guys are saying. But as a comparison with shimano pads I can usually get about a month out of a set in the same conditions.
I think that one of the contributing factors of my poor pad life was that the elixirs didn't have enough power off the top so I had to drag the brakes a little more than usual when entering corners. (one of the reasons why I didn't like them but that's another story lol)
Matt
 
#11 ·
I was doing something in the neighborhood of 150 miles per week. So it doesn't seem too in reasonable based on what you guys are saying. But as a comparison with shimano pads I can usually get about a month out of a set in the same conditions.
I think that one of the contributing factors of my poor pad life was that the elixirs didn't have enough power off the top so I had to drag the brakes a little more than usual when entering corners. (one of the reasons why I didn't like them but that's another story lol)
Matt
 
#12 ·
The sintered pads that came with mine lasted about half a year, riding weekends xc/trail riding with the g3 rotors. I've since replaced the pads with superstar sintered, (muddy conditions for both sets of pads) and theyre wearing down much faster (minimum of twice as fast). The pad also has chunks taken out of it, and pitts from grit which I had never seen on the avid pads, so I think the superstar pads are much softer.

At a quarter of the price, they still work out better value than the avid pads though.
 
#13 ·
grnbkr said:
I was doing something in the neighborhood of 150 miles per week. So it doesn't seem too in reasonable based on what you guys are saying. But as a comparison with shimano pads I can usually get about a month out of a set in the same conditions.
I think that one of the contributing factors of my poor pad life was that the elixirs didn't have enough power off the top so I had to drag the brakes a little more than usual when entering corners. (one of the reasons why I didn't like them but that's another story lol)
Matt
I guess so.. but 18 bucks a week is a bit steep for brake pads. In fact, its ridiculous. I got about 300 on these rears. The front is fine, but the back not so much. I have a bad habit of steering with the rear wheel a little more than I should. I havent had a problem with the power, they modulate pretty well and will stop me on a dime. Except now of course. haha. I guess I am used to road bike brakes lasting a thousand miles.

I need to actually get back on the road bike alot over the next few weeks since I signed up for the tour de cure. Ive been sticking exclusively to the mtn bike over the last two months or so. Long work days, and short daylight hours are killing my riding time.
 
#14 ·
i2ambler said:
I guess so.. but 18 bucks a week is a bit steep for brake pads. In fact, its ridiculous. I got about 300 on these rears. The front is fine, but the back not so much. I have a bad habit of steering with the rear wheel a little more than I should. I havent had a problem with the power, they modulate pretty well and will stop me on a dime. Except now of course. haha. I guess I am used to road bike brakes lasting a thousand miles.

I need to actually get back on the road bike alot over the next few weeks since I signed up for the tour de cure. Ive been sticking exclusively to the mtn bike over the last two months or so. Long work days, and short daylight hours are killing my riding time.
hence me switching brakes lol. Needless to say I would do some pretty unforgivable things if my mountain bike brake pads had the power of, and lasted as long as my ultegra brakes (and dual compound shimano pads) on my edge wheels. (WAY off topic but if you haven't ridden this setup you haven't lived!)

Enjoy the tour de cure!

matt
 
#15 ·
I know this is an old post. But my experience is pretty similar. I have to change my front Avid Elixir R pads (I think stock is metallic) after about 520 miles.
I don't ride with the brake dragging and I have ridden a few times with the disc getting a little wet. I live in Southern California. I tend to brake at the last minute too. This is really disappointing!!
 
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