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All-new Kogel Disc Brake Pads boast Ceramic Barrier to keep pads hot and calipers cool

Written by Jessie-May Morgan
kogel disc brake pads bia kratos sintered wet dry
12 Comments
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You’ll be more familiar with Kogel as a brand that makes componentry to make you go faster, with their Watt-saving Oversized Pulley Wheels and low-friction ceramic bearings. Now, they’ve turned their attention to slowing you down, fast, so that you can brake even later going into corners… and go faster, with the new range of Kogel Disc Brake Pads for road, gravel and mountain biking. Two sintered compounds, Kratos and Bia, take care of stopping across a multitude of riding conditions from $34.99 USD.

Kogel Disc Brake Pads

kogel disc brake pads sram guide g2 calipers pad replacement
Replacement disc brake pads for SRAM Guide/G2/Avid XO calipers from Kogel are available in the Kratos and Bia sintered compounds

The new Kogel Disc Brake Pads both run a sintered compound, each optimized to perform at their best under different conditions. The Kratos compound is the wet-friendly brake pad. In damp conditions, it is the more durable option. Kogel tells us these pads reach maximum potential with some heat buildup from cornering and descending.

The Kogel Bia Brake Pads have a softer compound, said to offer great bite, hot or cold, but performs best in dry conditions. Both Kratos and Bia benefit from Kogel’s Ceramic Barrier technology, wherein a layer of ceramic lines the backside of the pad working to prevent heat dissipation to the caliper and the braking fluid it houses. This should, in theory, make braking more consistent on long descents, or less brake fade. Kogel tells us the Ceramic Barrier negates the need for fins, a feature Shimano use in an effort to achieve that same objective.

kogel brake pads sram etap axs calipers replacement pads
Kratos and Bia compound Kogel Brake Pads are available for SRAM eTap AXS/ Level/Force/Red calipers

The Kogel Kratos and Bia brake pads are said to be easier to bed in than others on the market, owing to the fact that they are baked to 1000°C. Both are composed of 100% recyclable material, and are Nickel and Lead-free, thus less toxic than pads that do contain those heavy metals, therefore less detrimental to our environment.

On the road and gravel side, the new Kogel Disc Brake Pads are available for Shimano DuraAce, Ultegra, 105, GRX, Tiagra, XTR M9100 calipers, SRAM AXS, Force, Red, Level (2019+) calipers, as well as SRAM Red 22/Force 22/Rival 22/Level (pre-2019). For mountain, Kogel offer the Kratos and Bia for Shimano XTR, XT and SLX 2-Piston calipers, and SRAM G2, Guide and Avid XO calipers.

Pricing & Availability

All Kogel Disc Brake Pads retail at $34.99 USD. The Kratos compound is available now with the Bia “coming soon”.

Kogel.cc

Jessie-May Morgan
Jessie-May Morgan
1,362 articles

Jessie-May Morgan is the UK & Ireland Tech Editor of Bikerumor. She has been writing about Mountain Bike Riding and Racing, and all its weird and wonderful technology for 4 years. Prior to that, she was an Intern at the Mountain Bike Center of Scotland, and a Mountain Bike Coach and Leader in the Tweed Valley.

Based in Innerleithen, Scotland, Jessie-May can often be seen riding the Glentress Trail Center, and its neighboring Enduro and Downhill Tracks. She regularly competes in Enduro at a national level, and has recently competed on the World Stage at a handful of Enduro World Series events.

For Bikerumor, Jessie-May is testing the latest mountain bikes, equipment and kit, letting readers know what’s hot and what’s not.

For context, she weighs 60kg and stands at 5ft 4″ tall (163cm).

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tech9
tech9
2 years ago

If it’s anything like their bearings, expect them to last less than a month.

2
Reply
Ard Kessels
Ard Kessels
2 years ago
Reply to  tech9

Tech9, I you’ve had a bad experience with our bearings, please reach out to me any time. ard@kogel.cc

I’m sure we have a solution for you.

1
Reply
Tom
Tom
2 years ago
Reply to  tech9

Must have been user error because you’re literally the first person I’ve ever heard say that lol.
Install a crankset improperly and fry a Kogel BB?

0
Reply
Aquatic life
Aquatic life
2 years ago

Environmentally friendly? That’s a joke.

Every Sintered pad use plenty of COPPER. You can tell by the color of their pads as well.
Copper dust is the single most dangerous ingredient in every brake pad as it is toxic to aquatic life. Google it.

Every car manufacturer is scrambling now for patents to reduce copper to 0 in brake pads as in 2025 new legislation will kick in to reduce usage of copper in brake pads to only 0.5%. There is already one legislation in place since 2021 that reduces Cu amount to 5%. It’s that bad.

But bike companies seem to be oblivious to this fact as all of them use way more copper than actually permitted by law. Especially sintered pads.

No bike brake pads contain lead, nickel or asbestos these days as this has been outlawed years ago pretty much in every country on the planet. But they all use copper still. So these cowboys promote something that does not exist in the pads anyway, but hide the fact there is plenty of copper in them.

Besides increasing pad-rotor temperature will only increase the wear. This is why all smart companies try to shed the heat out of the pad.

2
Reply
blahblahblah
blahblahblah
2 years ago
Reply to  Aquatic life

10 minutes of exhaust from your car does more harm to the environment than these brake pads do in their service life

5
Reply
Renata Ricotta
Renata Ricotta
2 years ago

i thought one of the points of a hydraulic brake was to modulate heat AWAY from your brake pad and rotor…. Obviously I’m not a golfer

2
Reply
Angstrom
Angstrom
2 years ago
Reply to  Renata Ricotta

Right, but you don’t want the heat going into the brake fluid via the pistons. So insulating the back of the pad makes sense.

Insulating the back plus cooling fins seems like it’d be even better. The heat has to go somewhere.

1
Reply
Joe
Joe
2 years ago
Reply to  Angstrom

Most pistons are made of ceramic already to prevent just that. Best example is Shimano.

0
Reply
Tiny Tim
Tiny Tim
2 years ago

Always wondered what was better heat in the pad/rotor or heat into the entire system to dissipate more heat. Curious if there are any benefits since this release doesn’t even give any numbers to compare to.

0
Reply
Ard Kessels
Ard Kessels
2 years ago
Reply to  Tiny Tim

The main point is to keep heat out of the pistons and brake fluid.

The pads actually need some heat for optimal performance. The ceramic shield reflects heat back into the pads to get them up to that temperature faster. Cooling fins do the opposite: pull heat out of the pads, making it harder to get to maximum friction.

We chose to work with a range of sintered compounds since the operating temperature (up to 400C) is far away from the processing temperature (1000C). Organic compounds are processed at around 500C, which is the reason they are not resistant to extreme heat buildup on long downhills.

0
Reply
Josh
Josh
2 years ago
Reply to  Ard Kessels

Pads have a very small thermal mass on their own so they heat up fast anyway. Problem is when there is excessive heat. This is what fins are for.

Claiming sintering temperature is pointless because if you reach over 500deg C on the rotor itself hardness of the rotor drops significantly – Beyond this point you will soften steel which will render rotor useless as it will loose all its hardness permanently which is critical to withstand wear and warping. In lame terms you will cook the rotor.
By providing pads that can operate at temperatures beyond rotor capability is simply dangerous. Especially on a road bike.

These are most likely ordered from A2Z brand catalog anyway- a generic manufacturer for 99% of brands.
.

4
Reply
FritzP
FritzP
2 years ago

Many Shimano disc brakes have ceramic pistons. Do Shimano finned pads help dissipate the heat that isn’t absorbed by the brake caliper because of the ceramic piston (as well as dissipating heat in general)? So would using these pads in Shimano brakes be a bad idea?

0
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