Pads

En route to the garbage can this morning, I took a quick picture of my brake pads:

From the top we have a pad from my rear caliper, removed immediately after Iceman (aka IceMudMan). In the middle is a pad from my front caliper, removed immediately after IceMudMan. The bottom bad is brand spanking new, ready to install. It might not be easy to tell from this angle, but the top pad is worn down to the backing plate. The middle pad has a good amount of wear, and the material that’s left is probably gunk-infused. I replaced both sets.

This photo is a good representation of just about every customer bike we’ve seen this week: completely dead rear pads and if-not-completely-then-mostly dead front pads. Conservatively I’d say we’ve ordered more pads in the last three days than we have the previous two years. What did this? Mud. Grit is thrown up between the rotor and pad and eats away the pad material in record time. Globs of mud settle between the pad backing plates and the caliper body when brakes are applied and prohibit the pads from retracting when the brake lever is released. Pads that would last years were devoured in less than three hours.

The other component that got really munched: chains. Yuck.

Next year maybe it’ll just be cold.