Heated until blue and too hot. What condition are the pads in? Are they sintered? Are you pumping the brakes or just dragging them the whole way? Disc brakes work really well for mountain biking with long steep hills etc. You should not be maxing them out on a commute. How long and how steep is your hill? I run BB7's on 3 bikes with no problems. They are cable brakes that work well in all conditions.