what mountain bike disc brake pads?

[tommyb]

as i know theres a fair few bikers on the forum i'd like to ask your opinions on the best disc brake pads for my Hayes 9's on my rockhopper.

i've not had them long as i've only just got back into biking last year after a long brake from riding jumps back when i was at school. i bough the bike secondhand and i replaced the pads it came with as they were knackered with some genuine Hayes semi metallic pads which have fallen to pieces on the front after a few miles

i only ride XC but ride flat out on the downhill parts and have faded them a few times which i think has caused them to brake up as the centre of the pad has all but gone and its fooked the rotor up

so i currently have a 160mm front rotor, is it worth going up a size? and what are the best pads about and where to get them from?

any help much appreciated
cheers
tommy

[serious love]

cant go wrong with avid juicy 3's ,
but im not sure what pads but go to chain reaction cycles, good place to buy,
and rotor size, if the rotors are bigger they will not run as hot on the dh sections and may help stop wear on the pads, 180 might do the trick as 200 may be to much for the xc side of things.
but i do xc and dh also and im only used to avid j3 so hopefully someone else might help more,

[al_S13]

I have some hydraulic disc brakes on my GT Avalanche 1.0. The rear is awesome, the front is shit. I decided to put 205mm disc on the front to help haul my 18st up. Still crap. I then fitted a Hope M4 caliper, Still shit. I dont remember rim brakes being that bad!

[marko14a]

I found EBC red stuff pads to be a lot better than the standard hope pads in my mono6 brakes. This was on my downhill bike, so not so sure for an xc, but they did work well from cold.

[Rich_M]

Gold-tec's used to be my pad of choice back in the day, but i have been out of the rididng game for 6-7 years now.
Rich

[Pete H]

I'm just about to upgrade the discs on my bikes - I've been out of the game for a while. Can you get discs to fit any hub application? Is there like an ISO fitting for them yet? I've got Hope Bigguns on one bike and Shimano hubs on the other.

[Maddog]

Sorry for the Hi-jack.....

I'm also due an upgrade from cable to Hydraulic discs on my Specilaized hard rock, it's used for XC only and on some descent's i've suffered very bad brake fade....scared the be-jees out me the first time!
What Hydraulic ones are worth buying, up to around perhaps £300, or will i not get any good ones for that?