Thanks for all your help. I think I'll go for the clarkes. Hopefully they will last longer than the original pads. The rears only lasted about 800km and were replaced at the 6 week service. I've done just over 2000km and both sets are nearly ready for replacing. This doesn't seem much in between replacing will better quality pads last longer?
Better quality pads will stop you more efficiently, especially in wet weather, but might actually wear out faster......
The thing to bear in mind about rim brakes is that there are 2 braking surfaces involved; the pad and your wheel rim. When you slam on the anchors, assuming the brakes are actually working rather than simply sliding over the rims with minimal friction then something has to give.
Either the pad is reasonably soft (and will therefore wear quickly), or it's harder and longer lasting.... in this case it's your rims that wear quicker. I've always been of the opinion that pads are a shed-load cheaper to replace than rims.
Personally I'm not a fan of the Clarkes pads (although they are a massive improvement on Shimano pads), and much prefer either Swisstop green or Koolstop Salmon. Both of these are softer compounds which are kinder to rims (oh and stop very well in all conditions too)
