Ok, so I've had my giant ocr touring for about 3 months, I've put 1200 miles on it and the front brake pads are down to almost nothing. Avid says replace em when the thickness of the pad assembly is down to 3mm. I measured mine at 3.1mm, time to get some new brakes.
Is it normal for disc pads to wear so quickly?

Are you using just your front brakes? maybe that's why they wore down so fast.

Front and back.. the difference is 0.3mm.

It's not the miles, it's how often you stop. I've got about 1600 miles on my brake pads, also disc, and I think they're close to being ready for a new set. I figure I would have gone through five or six sets of rim pads in that time, so it's all relative.

Re: front vs. rear: see https://www.sheldonbrown.com/brakturn.html . The only time you should use the rear brake is when the front isn't working.

I usually use the front + rear together, it helps a lot in the initial stopping. The ironic thing is, my old mtb that I commuted with and rode in the same fashion, went through a set of brakes every maybe 8-10 months.

It's probably cause its the first time I had discs on my commuter road bike and I usually sprint to about 25 or so from a light then jam to a stop a couple blocks down. I just didn't expect these things to wear out that fast.

Huh. I had previously been using the back brake for stopping - almost exclusively. I have that fear of flying over the handlebars, I guess. I'll try and break that habbit, but it's been with me for at least a decade...

Agreed. These are nice and cheap
https://www.pricepoint.com/detail/111...Brake-Pads.htm

What rear brake pads you're using? My rear brake won't even come close to stopping the bike. I still use both but the front takes most of the load. I suspect you're traveling at 5 mph because the rear is not enough to stop a fast moving bike.

you might get better wear with your second set now that the rotor as smoothed itself out a little. also check out the other brands of avid compatible pads (those avid pads are expensive)

i did notice that on my disk equipped mountain bike i seem to be going through pads faster than on my v-brake equipped bike. even for mtbing i am not quite sold on disks yet. they stop better but i can't beat em up as well without bending a rotor or somehow f@cking them up; wehereas my v-brakes are foolproof (which is good for me).

Thanks for the heads up, slvoid! I just check my disc pads and yup, they nned to be changed. We got about the same mileage (I'm at 1,150 miles). I hope the 2nd set last longer. Dang urban stop and go traffic!

The one caveat to the front brake rule being gravel or dirt on the road, or riding in loose dirt.

Ice and snow also.

Paul

I have about 1200 miles on my commuter, and my pads are maybe half worn.

Standard shimano rim brakes.

Now you've got me curious about my pads. I'll have to check tonight. Alas I had to drive today.

Sheldon's article seems focused more on rim brakes than disk brakes. I don't buy the argument of always using the front. Even in a panic stop, there is some value in hitting the rear as well. So it only helps stop 10% and 90% is handled by
the front. That's still 10% more than using front alone.

Sheldon also did not address the problem of trying to stop on a long steep downhill run. Favoring the rear brake, rim brakes, I blew a rear tire because of the heat buildup. There was still control, but it was a squirmy ride from 30mph to 0mph. I don't know if I would have had any control if the front tire had blown instead of the rear.

So this rider is usually hitting both brakes. The rear gets it just a fraction before the front. With the disc brakes, I noticed I brake less than with rim brakes.

That's a fascinating article. Makes me want to switch brake cables/levers... because I am frequently slowing down with the right hand and signalling with the left, meaning I am only using the rear brake. I wondered why it seemed like I couldn't stop well enough, I think I need to use the front more.

I agree that in a panic stop you might have value to applying the rear brake. My bike is very heavy in the back so I think it unlikely that I can completely unload the rear tire with the front brake. I dunno I'll have to try it.

Where's batman?

my MTB commuter with BB7's has about 3k miles on the original pads and though I haven't measured them, they still stop me just fine

There's basically no difference in how you use the brakes between discs and rim brakes.

I didn't say that. If you would actually read the article you'll see that I mention 5 specific cases where the rear brake should be used.

When you're applying the front brake so hard that only 10% off the bike's weight is on the rear wheel, hitting the rear brake is almost certain to cause the rear wheel to skid.

Skidding the rear wheel by itself isn't that big a deal, but skidding the rear while braking hard on the front wheel is very likely to cause the bike to fishtail and lose control.

Once again, I urge you to actually read the article, the most important article on my whole site. Under the heading "When to use the rear brake" the 5th point is:
Sheldon "Front Brake" Brown

Does that seem odd to you that they're wearing so quickly?

slvoid, take into account the type of weather you're riding in... obviously if you're riding in rain, sleet, dirt, etc. your pads are going to wear down a lot faster than if you rode predominantly on clean and dry roads. I know NYC's streets aren't exactly the best, so perhaps that's part of it?

The Rev messaged me and brought up a good point. The avid pads are some kind of plastic composite, he said a metallic pad would wear slower, although that would also wear out the disc quicker...

I missed this. This comment makes sense. Of course buying a bike with disc brakes removes the problem of overheating a rim from the possible problems. Even then, it makes sense to alternate brakes. Thanks for the insight.

Any brakes can overheat and experience brake fade... I guess you can blow the tire first using rim brakes, but disc brakes will fade if you simply apply one or both for a long descent. Just like in a car. Brake pad materials have a certain temperature range they are designed for. I would assume bicycle brake pads are designed for lower temperatures than car pads (cycle discs probably dissipate the heat a lot quicker than car discs, they aren't shrouded by the wheel and the surface area looks like it's a lot larger relative to the amount of heat generated)... but even car pads have a certain temperature above which their performance falls off greatly.

I tried braking hard with only my fronts today, and I couldn't get the rear tire to lift. I have a very heavy rack + trunk on the back, plus I'm not a small guy (200 lbs)... so I think no matter what I can get some value from using both brakes.

However I noticed that having my left hand do the hard braking helps because it allows my right hand to downshift from 7th or 8th gear back into first... so I don't wind up sitting there in a high gear I can't start in.

I don't think I would ever lift the rear wheel, unless maybe if it was a steep downhill and going fast.

But I tend to treat bike brakes like car brakes. Panic stop, don't lock up and keep locked up. Lock up and then modulate as fast as can to get desired reduction in speed. Kind of like anti-lock brakes, but manually.

If descents are very long and you start noticing reduced braking ability, you only choices are to unareo as much as possible and get off the bike and let everything cool down.

Perhaps we should think of the rear brake--in most situations--as more of a "drag" brake--to slow things down, than a "stopper". The front brake is much more useful; I've "tail whipped"--with a disc brake!--by using too much back brake, even in the "loose stuff". Once in the direction of traffic. During rush hour! I was lucky to NOT go down!

Also, use the rear brake to (carefully!) slow down when retaining full steering control (technical terrain, tight traffic) is essential; using the front brake in this case will impede steering or (almost) "jam" it entirely. Foresight in dealing with the conditions/obstacles present can minimize this problem--and the use of the rear brake. Same with "emergency stops" anywhere. These "dual-brake-jammer-sessions" too can be minimized by simply paying attention to what you are doing!

To sum up: Thinking ahead=foresight=safety in braking!