Originally Posted by
SapInMyBlood
A bit on context:
Someone using disc brakes on their road cycle-touring machine in flat country might only touch the brakes a few times a day for traffic lights, or to pull into a cafe. very light brake use every few hundred KM and might easily do 6000+ km per set of pads. I know here in Australia, I've done long 300km+ day rides on my roadie but because there's so much open country, I might only touch my brakes a handful of times. I've done 150km bike rides that had 3 turns! The rest is open road, no lights, no hard curves, just gentle and meandering hills.
Vice versa, back home in Vancouver (BC) when I was mounting, I was climbing and descending 500-600m of vertical every lap which was only a few kilometers ... and using the brakes HARD for technical black/ double black mountain jank and chunder.
When someone spits out a number like "Same pads since 2015" just be mindful of context.
If you're a 95kg rider who is cautious on descents, that sounds about right. Why not try metallic pads and save yourself a bit of coin over the longterm?
As the person who “spit out [that] number”, I
am mindful of the context. I even stated what my context was. I live in mountains and ride in mountains and understand how to use my brakes to the best effect without over taxing them. I was merely pointing out that dragging brakes on downhills is going to wear out pads very quickly.