Originally Posted by cyccommute

While I agree that trying to keep the speed to 25 mph, a disc brake should handle the heat issues far better than a drum brake does. Drum brakes tend to “pack” heat and eventually fail because they simply can’t take more heat. The disc brake sheds heat far easier than a drum. A rim…which is really just a very large rotor disc…sheds heat even better because if its size and area.



You do seem to have a rather low speed limit for a heavy bike on what you describe as steep descents. Having seen the pictures of your bike, it should be able to handle far higher speeds without issues. Perhaps you need to explain to your wife what keeping the speed down at such a low level is doing to the components of the bike. Ask her to let you run a little faster…10 mph wouldn’t be that much more and would be easier on the brakes.

You’ve describe “black gunk” on the brakes. Is that just brake dust? You might need to replace pads more often given your brake usage but that shouldn’t necessitate a brake bleed nor should it cause much problem with the caliper. If you have oily black gunk, that says something is wrong with your caliper. You shouldn’t have anything oily around the pads or the caliper or the rotor.