TESTED: Miles Racing Brake Pads

For a pretty small, and fairly cheap item, getting the right brake pad is important. The wrong brake pad can lead to more than just poor braking – they could damage your rotors, overheat too easily, and cause you to crash.

I’ve run Shimano brakes exclusively on my own bikes since late 2011. While the new SRAM Guide brakes feel amazing, I don’t have any myself so I’ve never needed to get replacement pads. But I’ve used countless sets of Shimano pads, and know that there’s real value in getting the right pads – which is usually a Shimano one.

Miles are new to the Australian market, and with a semi-metallic and a sintered pad available for Shimano, I was keen to try them out.

I tend to prefer semi-metallic for most riding in Australia, but sintered for wet months or trips overseas. I find that the semi-metallic pads feel a bit nicer, without being too grabby or noisy.

For the sake of testing, I put these straight into the M985 XTR Race brakes on my XC dual-suspension bike. I’ve been running some pretty light rotors that aren’t amazing for braking, but ok for most things.

In dry and damp conditions, I was pretty impressed. They had about zero run in time, which was good as I’d fitted them when building my bike in Alice Springs ahead of the Easter in the Alice stage race. The Miles pads didn’t squeal, they had the power I needed, and after about two months had very little sign of wear. They really only moved beyond their use when I started riding around Brisbane, on some of the more extended and overly steep service trails on the flanks of Mt Coot-tha. Like, 30 percent steep. I cooked the pads on the super light rotors, and even after knocking the glaze off with a file, they just weren’t the same.

In went some of the Miles sintered pads and full fat XT rotors and I’m back to being impressed. The braking is consistent, quiet, and so far – fade free. I’ve had these pads in for about 6 weeks and the performance is exactly what I want – reliable. The stopping power is everything I want it to be, and heat resistance has been the same – excellent.

Next month I’ll be heading to Switzerland, and will probably move back to a Shimano finned pad (and my XTR Trail brakes) to assist with cooling on the much longer descents. But otherwise, I’m really happy to have tried the Miles pads. They’re certainly worth looking at as a replacement option.

Hits: Great value and good performance

Misses: Semi-metallic not suited to all applications

RRP: $24.95 for semi-metallic, $29.95 for sintered.

From: Miles Racing