Out of Sight

Destroyed pads after 1 ride!

I keep debating about disc brakes. Obviously there is not much of a question when talking mountain bikes as it is and ever-shrinking pool of quality product for rim brakes. No, what I debate, is if new randoneurring or commuters should have discs.

I have a grand goal of building a lightweight randoneur that triples as a gravel grinder and commuter. I have a few of these bikes now, but each of them is not quite right. I know geometry, single/geared options, even most of the components. But I get stuck on the brakes. The photo shown is a customer's pads after 1 ride. 1 RIDE! One side of the pad set is completely gone.  The other nearly worn to the metal at the top.  The spring between the pads is worn through on one side completely.  Mud and gunk can destroy pads so fast, how is this a good idea to put on a bike? I ride cantilevers on most of my bikes and replace pads every few years (the bonus of spreading the riding over many bikes and only weighing 135#). I do have to replace pads on my winter commuter every year, but that is the exception. I love the idea of being able to run a bunch of tyre widths with no adjustment, but does it offset the wear issue?

I have been using disc brakes on my single speed mountain bike for a couple years now, but I don't ride that very often.  And as I don't race, I don't ride that bike in very adverse conditions.  Using discs on a bike I would ride in all sorts of nasty conditions certainly would change the pad wear.  Now with the UCI allowing discs in cyclocross, I am expecting higher quality road brake setups.  Hopefully my custom bike will take long enough that there will be better options for road discs.  Or it will just make my choice that much harder.