Ok I have managed to "glaze" my brake pads by overheating them (they're stock Avid sintered jobbies). What I want to know is (and I'm not interested in bs speculation unless you have some reasoning behind it), when you heat a sintered brake pad up to whatever temperature causes glazing, is it likely to cause *all* the pad material to harden up just as (or nearly as) much or is it strictly a surface issue? Because I've been told that if you just file/sand the surface of the pads off (with 100% clean sandpaper/file obviously to avoid contamination) then bed the pads back in again, they should be fine. I have not managed to successfully do this (by successfully, I mean "get the brakes back to their original power").
What I'm thinking is - pad heats up to some rediculous temperature (because I'm a hack and I drag the brakes too much), say ~400C right at the surface. Brake pad is only about 1.5-2mm thick even when new, so obviously it's not going to be hard for the heat to be conducted through the pad material. Is this likely to (literally) cook *all* the pad material?
Basically, the pads (well brakes in general) were f'ing awesome when brand new. Then I glazed the pads over and now they're pretty mediocre. I tried some other pads (Koolstops), and they were nothing special, but I haven't re-tried with brand new Avid sintered pads. I am also super careful about contamination, and to the best of my knowledge have completely avoided it with these brakes. I also clean the rotor now and then (only with brake-friendly stuff though, ie water/detergent [which before the pads got glazed, worked very well] and acetone [ditto, and makes sure there's no oil residue]), so I'm convinced it's not contamination that's the case.
Anyone got any comment on the heat thing? Is the rest of the pad material likely to be as rooted as the surface apparently is?
I'd be especially interested to hear from anyone who has actually been involved in any kind of (real) brake testing/R&D. On that note, does anyone have an email address for Avid? The SRAM website is a fuggin POS.
What I'm thinking is - pad heats up to some rediculous temperature (because I'm a hack and I drag the brakes too much), say ~400C right at the surface. Brake pad is only about 1.5-2mm thick even when new, so obviously it's not going to be hard for the heat to be conducted through the pad material. Is this likely to (literally) cook *all* the pad material?
Basically, the pads (well brakes in general) were f'ing awesome when brand new. Then I glazed the pads over and now they're pretty mediocre. I tried some other pads (Koolstops), and they were nothing special, but I haven't re-tried with brand new Avid sintered pads. I am also super careful about contamination, and to the best of my knowledge have completely avoided it with these brakes. I also clean the rotor now and then (only with brake-friendly stuff though, ie water/detergent [which before the pads got glazed, worked very well] and acetone [ditto, and makes sure there's no oil residue]), so I'm convinced it's not contamination that's the case.
Anyone got any comment on the heat thing? Is the rest of the pad material likely to be as rooted as the surface apparently is?
I'd be especially interested to hear from anyone who has actually been involved in any kind of (real) brake testing/R&D. On that note, does anyone have an email address for Avid? The SRAM website is a fuggin POS.