More maintenance

[johnridley]

Nothing like placing a parts order to be sure that the very next day you'll need more parts.

My front brake pads wore through to the metal this afternoon. Damn, I just put those on April 10, so I only got about 2 months out of them. OTOH, that's 1000 miles. Some BikeForums members go through pads that fast, but I'm not used to it. Of course, lately I've been going to work a bit later, and hitting Dexter at rush means I actually have to USE my brakes, sometimes a lot as I'm in a line of stop-and-go traffic; if I get there at 6AM I rarely have to stop at all since I can just time the light and coast through.

This is kind of odd since the set before that lasted over a year. I think going down to metal-on-metal last time really scored up the rims, so they hold dirt and really tear up the pads now. The roads have been quite dusty too, and the front rim is getting kind of torn up.

I keep thinking that I should move to front discs. Building a new front wheel, and buying the parts for a disc retrofit (caliper, pads, rotor, new hub, rim, and spokes) up front would run about $120. On the one hand, that will buy brake pads for a couple of years, but on the other hand, with disc brakes I won't be wearing gouges through the rims (which may cause a dangerous blowout some day), and the stopping power will be a lot better, especially in the winter. It's probably a good move, especially since the parts and the wheel would move to a different bike some day, and the wheel should last practically forever with no brake to wear the rim down.