Hearing gravity-fueled, all-around mountain bike legend Cédric Gracia had his own signature line of disc brake pads from a company I hadn’t heard of, my first thought was… Huh? What makes them special? Well, it turns out DiscoBrakes has been making aftermarket brake pads for over a decade. And their newest Copper-Free pads claim some solid performance boosts, with a side benefit of being easier on the environment.
Cédric Gracia edition DiscoBrakes Copper-Free pads
Cédric paired up with DiscoBrakes at the start of last year, and has since played a role in both testing and R&D for the company’s disc brake pad range. Not surprisingly after a couple decades of top-level competition on mountain bikes, he’s become quite picky with his equipment. And the Copper Free pads from DiscoBrakes sound like they live up to the hype.
DiscoBrakes claims that the copper-free, carbon fiber reinforced silicon carbide compound delivers powerful, well mannered modulation in a brake pad that is both long-wearing & quiet running in both wet & dry riding. That ticks all the right boxes, with the extra upside of taking heavy metals out of the braking material so they don’t litter the trail with harmful metals as you brake.
DiscoBrakes claims that the Cédric Gracia Edition Copper Free pads are the best performing pads they’ve ever made. Not to mention their environmental benefit.
DiscoBrakes sells the green steel-backed, CG Copper Free pads for most major disc brake calipers, including Shimano, SRAM, Tektro, TRP & more, for around $13 per wheel, or $40 for a four-pack good for two bikes. Weights claim to be around 22g for a set of XTR pads, up to 26g for the Magura MT5 version. That sounds good enough that I think we’ll have to give them a try over the winter.
