metal or resin brake pads?

[bero62]

Hello everyone this is my first post.I have recently bought a specialized crosstrail ltd disc 2011 with shimano bl-575 brakes.I have got some metal sintered pads to fit it but have seen stamped on the rotors use resin pads only.If i use the metal pads will it cause problems or will they just be noisier?This is my first bike with disc brakes so don"t know anything!

 

[MacB]

My understanding is that the rotors are not as hard a material and will wear far faster with the sintered pads, however the resin pads will wear far faster than the sintered, I've seen claims of 3 or 4 to 1.

Personally I'd go with the sintered and replace the rotors with better ones when they wear out. I switched to disc brakes to avoid wearing out rims and for longer lasting pads. I'm quite happy to wear out rotors and, by my calcs, the cost will work out about the same as it would if I used resin pads replaced more often.

But I don't know just how weak the rotors in question are, may be worth doing some searches to see if anyone has done similar and if they suffered catastrophic rotor failure due to this.

 

[Globalti]

It's simply a question of which is the harder material. Resin pads will wear out much faster than sintered and after two years with sintered on mine, I don't really think they are wearing the disc any more than resin pads do. Compare the surface area of a brake pad (one square inch?) with that of the disc and you'll see why.

Sintered are noisier though, they will sound like an InterCity 125 arriving in a station. They don't grab the disc quite as effectively as resin pads do. I usually use standard Hope pads in summer and sintered in winter.

 

[bero62]

Thanks for the replies.I''l use the sintered pads if the rotor can,t handle it i'll replace it as for the extra noise thats probably a good thing as we have lots of tourists here who like to walk in the middle of the road!

 

[MacB]

well I've got 3 bikes with Avid BB7s on, all with sintered pads and none of them noisy as yet.