When to change disk pads

[geomannie]

Hi,

This might sound like an obvious question, but when do you change disk pads? My latest bike is my first with disk brakes which happen to be TRP Hy/Rd.

To my eye, even when new the pads look very thin but how far down do you let them go before changing. Indeed, How do you measure the wear other than by eyeball?

I take it that the last thing you want is to have metal pad backing scraping on the disks themselves and that is what I want to avoid.

[gregoryoftours]

https://youtu.be/ZHbTMl6EGJc

It's worth at least taking the wheel out once in a while so that you can check each edge of the pad material. Often they don't wear completely evenly and one corner or edge could be low enough to warrant replacement even though other areas look fine. If you have a caliper/adapter arrangement that lets you remove and replace the brake without losing its positioning on the rotor then taking the whole caliper off for inspection is the easiest way to really have a good look. Use some loctite on the bolts when you refit the brake.

[PH]

Hi,

This might sound like an obvious question, but when do you change disk pads? My latest bike is my first with disk brakes which happen to be TRP Hy/Rd.

To my eye, even when new the pads look very thin but how far down do you let them go before changing. Indeed, How do you measure the wear other than by eyeball?

I take it that the last thing you want is to have metal pad backing scraping on the disks themselves and that is what I want to avoid.

Advice I've seen varies between 1 - 1.5mm, I split the difference and don't let mine go below 1.2, I use a feeler gauge made of an old bank card (3 layers) Most of the time I can get a pretty good idea by looking, but I like the reassurance of having measured. They will quite often get changed a bit earlier, if I'm already doing some maintenance and they haven't a lot of wear left, I'll change them at the same time. I like the pads from Discobrakes and it's more economical to buy four pairs at a time, so I'll have them in stock.

[geomannie]

Thanks folks. Good suggestions.

[NickJP]

I let mine wear until the pad material is about the thickness of a credit card.