Uberbike Finned Brake Pads – Review
A couple of years ago Shimano added cooling fins to their brake pads. Uberbike have produced their own take on these that offers a more eco and wallet friendly approach to these pads. While the Shimano version is a one piece pad with the cooling fins integrated, so when the braking material is worn down the whole lot goes in the bin, the Uberbike versions feature a reusable alloy backplate that is recessed to house the pads. This two piece design means that you only shell out for the finned bit once, don’t have to throw it away, and can save a bit of cash just replacing the inserts.
Fitting was dead easy, the inserts and pads sit together perfectly. I was a bit worried that they might vibrate or have a bit of play, but even after burning through a few sets of pads the backplates have remained sweet, true and free from rattles.
I had two compounds to test, the brownish sintered and the white race-matrix. The sintered did the business through some horrendous conditions, wet, sandy and long descents demanding plenty of heavy braking. Even in the wettest of filthy times braking power stayed, and despite 1000s of vertical metres of descent they lasted really well. The race-matrix pads did burn through a little quicker, but gave a super-powerful feel, best saved for drier times they still lasted a lot better than most organic pads I’ve ever used.
Do the fins work then? Well I’ve not had any issues with brakes overheating or fading at any time during the testing, and given that if you were to pop open any bit of technology that needs to loose heat you’d find similar fins, I’d say they certainly don’t do any harm. I did try a bit of quantitative testing, recording pad and caliper temperatures after runs, but the issues surrounding consistency of braking and the time to get a thermometer to the pads made it a pretty worthless afternoon! I contemplated getting a bike on a turbo trainer and doing some fancy heat sensitive filming, but I came to my senses and went for another proper ride instead!
A pair of alloy backplates with Race-Matrix inserts will cost you £13.99, and replacement inserts come in at £8.99 a set. The semi metallic versions are £10.99 and £5.49 respectively. Given the big S’s versions start at £16 and will cost you that every time, and these versions work at least as well as the set my SLX brakes came with, I can’t see a reason to buy the Shimano ones again.
