Sintered brake pads?

[Carbon_Kiwi]

what exactly are 'sintered' brake pads? i've just bought a new pair for my hope mini's [clarks - birmingham] they sound good, but i was interested in what the process is and what supposed advantages[?] they give?
while we are at it - what are your preferences regarding brand/type?

[Sprucey]

Hi C/kiwi

sintered brake pads contain more metal particles in the compound - normally some form of copper.

This gives a harder compound - the upside is that the harder compound provides a longer lasting disc pad. Great for muddy, UK winter conditions or sandy gritstone as found in the Penines and Yorkshire etc.
They tend not to glaze over quite as easily as organic pads.

The downside is that they do not dissipate heat so well (brakes can over heat on long alpine descents) and the preformance is not quite so "grabby".  They are often noisier than organic pads.

If you are doing long alpine style downhills in dry, warm conditions then use the softer organic pads. They cope with heat build up better, offer better performance but at the expense of pad life.

I use organic in the summer and sintered in the winter when it gets wet.
Sintered pads should come on gold base plates and organic on bare metal/silver base plates.

I hope that helps?

Sprucey

[Carbon_Kiwi]

awesome info Sprucey,
looks like i should have gone for organic seeing as we are heading into summer... might have new calipers some time soon anyway - so no drama i guess  

[jimbo]

Hi C/kiwi

sintered brake pads contain more metal particles in the compound - normally some form of copper.

This gives a harder compound - the upside is that the harder compound provides a longer lasting disc pad. Great for muddy, UK winter conditions or sandy gritstone as found in the Penines and Yorkshire etc.
They tend not to glaze over quite as easily as organic pads.


Sprucey

What's the difference between Sintered and Semi-metallic?  My new bike has Hayes while my old bike has Avids.  I noticed that the Hayes has 2 factory pads.  Sintered and Semi-metallic.  The old Avid only had one type of pads so that's what I alway bought.

[Sprucey]

Hi Jimbo,

good question and I don't know the answer to that.

We don't do Hayes so i am not familiar with the brand/marketing speak they use. I guess they are simply mixing compounds to get the best mix of duarability vs performance.

I'll try and find out.

Sprucy