I have to admit to not having any idea if they are resin or sintered - i guess it never really makes much difference on a set of Avids or Hopes if they are organic or sintered - they all seem to work well (just some are slightly better than others, performance-wise). OK, first stop (geddit?) I'll stick some sintered in and give them a go.
I think the guy before me had them on a SC Chameleon, so I'm guessing he was not exactly mincing around on them - how he ever managed to brake for anything I'll never know!
The older Shimano resin ones were cack in the wet but fine in the dry - perhaps he just didn't ride in the wet, or maybe it explain why he sold them to you... If you get really desperate, I have some sintered spares sitting in my kitchen
When I went riding with the Hayfield lot last week, there was a guy I thought I recognised from a past ride, the conversation went:
Me: "We've ridden together before haven't we?" Him: "Yeah, you brought along those crystallized ginger and dark chocolate biscuits didn't you?" Me: "I expect so" Him: "Have you got any more? They were lovely."
It's so nice to be remembered for my entertaining and stimulating conversation ;(
Gavin, agreement from over here with the pads hypothesis, whether it be the compound type or contamination. Whack some new pads in, don't forget to de-grease the discs and you'll be right as rain. If they're feeling solid at the lever you'll not need to re-bleed.
I bought a second hand brake earlier in the year and had the same issue that was just contaminated pads - which can't be fixed without new pads.
If that fails, my next recommendation would be to try moffing the shafter of course
Ah, of course, I've heard that moffing the shafter is the recommended course of action for many bike-related woes. I'll keep that in the reserve tank for now though, and proceed with Plan A (some new pads).
I was just a little worried that after buying these brakes, I would get the advice (accompanied by sucking air through teeth) that 'XTR brakes are useless round here unless you only go at ?? mph'. They do look nice, just a pity I nearly had a pretty major stack as a result of them not working. Funny though, I just kinda assumed they would really slam on, did my usual line/speed down Coldwell Clough, which normally involves blatting over the drainage bars until you get to about 20m from the first sharp lefthander - pulled hard on the back and progressively harder on the front........and nothing happened.......!
It was nice over this way. Rode some new secret singletrack, which would be lovely in the dry but was sort of draggy in the wet, scared some cattle, scared some sheep, found some interesting new rain damage, tried some not very good lights, nearly had a whopping crash coming down from the cross thing above the golf course - one of those puddles is feckin' deep, avoid - climbed the diagonal field in a clean, flawless stylee when everything worked, ate food, went to sleep, had a dream where I got a first in theology from Cambridge
Jon - Did you not have any rain at all? I must admit the sky was lighter to the West, but at 2100 it started raining heavily. There was a lot of standing water about too - much more than I'd expect for this time of year. Looks like it might be a muddy winter
Strangely we managed to dodge the rain - lots of water on the trail and at one point, it had pretty obviously just tipped it down in the last ten minutes, but no, all of the water was on the ground. I'm not too bothered about mud round here, the Dark Peak tends to do gritty, destructive slop rather than proper gloopy mud, so I'll just get the singlespeed out and minimise the grinding horror...
Yup, actually I'd stick some Racing Ralphs on and don't forget your sunglasses - all that dust flying around could really put you off some of the drops....IGMC
Lots of suncream I reckon, you can still get damage from UV even when it's apparently quite cloudy. A bit like glacier travel. Make sure you shove the cream right up inside your nostrils in case of UV bouncing back up off the mud and puddles
Thanks for that Gavin, close there, I almost went with Swampthings but luckily just seen your post so managed to slip the RR's on the VPFree... close but thanks for the tip
Sunscream etc packed.. cheers. 10:00am at pub at end of station lane if anyone else is stoopid enough
Just been out for a spin, and I can report that the correct tyres for the south downs are 700×23
The Downs themselves are like waxed glass as the sun baked summer chalk is packed down solid and as smooth as glass with a nice rain induced layer of frictionless green slime on top. Two very sore shoulders from multiple random tractionless moments are a testament to the random nature of the local off-road coefficient of friction until the surface breaks up to reveal some grip (I'll let the walkers do this for the rest of the week I think!)
Just going to change the tyres on the Wanga ready for winter - clearly it's Voodoo time out there. No more graunching, grinding, (ex-)precision transmission componentry for me...
I wonder if I can kill an Alfine in a single winter. I'm sure it's a gauntlet that the Peak'll happily pick up, coat liberally in grinding paste them wipe slowly across my face.
Come to think of it, maybe there's a market for a natural, Peak sludge, facial exfoliation cream? If it can grind bearings, pads, rotors, chains and cogs to oblivion, just think what it'll do to those dull, dead skin cells we all hate so much - might have to come with a warning label though
I'll probably just head out early Sunday morning local for a bit of grit snorkelling and brake pad destruction. Do I accept fate and fit guards or just put up with another peat flavoured enema? Bloody stupid weather
I did a little loop of Jacobs-Edale-Hollins-Rushup-Roych today in mostly very pleasant sunshine, with alarming clouds all around, but fluffy ones and blue stuff above me. IN fact its been a funny day. I had only indented to ride up to Jacobs to support a friend doing a stupid 56 mile run race, and ended up doing that loop. However, in the morning I'd been out for 90 mins of road ride and discovered my legs had no power (been ill this week - off work), and this evening I've been running in support of this same friend. so - road, mtb, run in one day! should be some sort of triathlon for that. I think I did swimming whilst running this evening!!
South Downs are lethal when wet. Best bet is to send someone else out in front, and to slow down when they fall off. That always worked for me in my many years of south downs riding;-)
!
