Carbon brake pads v. aluminum brake pads

There are some pads that are advertised as being for both, but usually people use carbon rim specific brake pads.  They're made of a different material completely.  My Blackwell's came with their own carbon pads, so that's what I use.  Pain in the butt to change out for races, but it's better than messing up expensive race wheels.

The issue with "normal" brake pads is that they can't take the heat that a carbon brake surface will generate. This is the reason why you need different types of brake pads for carbon brake surface versus aluminum. Best one's I've found for carbon is SwissStop yellow. Seems like people like the Zipp pads as well, which I think are actually made by SwissStop.

For general aluminum brake surface, just stick to the standard pads, Campy or Shimano... cheap enough and works good.

But most important of all, don't use the same brake pads for both wheel sets! You will end up with aluminum particles in the brakes pads, which works as a fantastic abrasive pad to ruin the carbon wheels. Switching brake pads takes a coule of minutes at most, so having to sets is not that much of an issue....

Edited by audiojan 2007-11-23 8:33 AM