Well, this is a new one for me. I have Kool Stop V-brake inserts and this morning the pads were gone on both sides of the rear brake!
My first thought was that that someone had stolen them, but on going back to my appartment I found one on the ground.

The only possible explanation is that someone had removed the attachment pins, and the pads had worked loose. The pads have been on for a couple of months and were properly installed.

Weird huh?

In a worse case scenario if all four pins were removed, the pads might have come off simultaneously in a steep downhill or emergency braking. Could be quite nasty :/

The only time I leave my bike unattended is outside the supermarket, so the saboteurs may well have only gotten half way through their devious plan

Anyone heard of this before?

The retaining pin is on the rear end of the pad, so to dislodge them through braking, the bike would have to be going backwards. Seems strange to me. Perhaps something is wrong with your brake blocks or maybe your blocks were installed backwards? I just can't fathom how they'd fall out on their own (even without the pins).

I have some generic insert V-brake system and in my case it takes a bit of effort to remove the pins. Plus, brake shoes are usually covered in road grime and brake pad residue, so a casual passer-by wouldn't even know the pads are removable unless they looked very closely. Sounds really weird.

My thoughts exactly. You almost need pin-nosed pliers to get the pins out. Yes they were grimy aswell... Doesn't make a lot of sense at all.
The brakes worked fine yesterday, as they have for about a thousand miles since I changed the pads. Then all of a sudden they've fallen off! Bit of a wtf moment it was!

As you say, even without the pins they shouldn't fall out, so I guess the despicable perpetrator managed to take one off and left the other dangling. Can't think of another explanation without getting into UFO territory!

I use the same brakes (Avid SD7) and pads on both my commuter and touring bikes and can assure you they were properly installed

In a case like this, I think the UFO theory makes the most sense. Not sure why aliens from planets far away would want to disconnect your brake pads, but then again, I don't pretend to know how they think!

Rick / OCRR

Do you have any enemies?

I recently arrived at my bike to find my handlebars rotated 90 degrees (in line with the front wheel). I first tried to pound them back but they wouldn't budge, leading me to believe someone loosened my stem and re-tightened it in this orientation. Little did the perpetrator know that I carry a big took kit and I'm not afraid to use it.

Not only are space aliens now proven to be more reclusive than *Hollywood* has led us to believe, but they also haven't come to eat us afterall. They just want our brake pads. What a relief!

Any martens in your area? They really like the taste of rubber.