Brake pads

BMX brake pads: types, compounds and set-up

A worn or badly aligned pad ruins the best caliper on the market. It is also the cheapest part of the system and the one that pays back fastest: a few minutes of adjustment and a compound matched to your rim are usually all it takes to get a sharp, silent brake back.

Threaded post, smooth post or cartridge

A threaded-post pad is adjusted for height and angle through a stack of convex and concave washers clamped by a nut. It is the original V-brake fitment and very forgiving across different rim widths. A smooth-post pad is held by a through M6 bolt and adjusts for height only: simpler and quicker, but with no angle correction. A cartridge holder, finally, keeps its aluminium body in place and only the rubber insert is replaced, sliding into a channel and locked by a small pin.

Choosing the compound for your rim

• Standard compound: versatile on aluminium rims, a good balance of bite and service life.
• Soft compound: sharper in the wet and in cold weather, but wears down noticeably faster.
• Carbon-specific compound: formulated not to overheat the resin, and mandatory on a carbon rim. An aluminium-rim pad will destroy a carbon rim in a handful of motos.

Typical pad length is around 70 mm, which is enough to cover the braking surface of a 406 rim as well as a 451 or a 507 Cruiser rim.

Compatibility

V-brake pads are not interchangeable with cantilever pads, whose post and geometry differ, nor with disc pads, which belong to our disc brake kits. Check the width of your rim: a wide 24 inch rim may need extra washers on the outside so the pad does not bottom out on the arm. Check tyre clearance too: with a 20x1.75, the pad must sit flush with the braking surface without touching the sidewall.

Set-up in three steps

Set the pad flat on the braking surface, without overhanging towards the tyre at the top or into thin air at the bottom. Then give it a slight toe-in of about 1 mm at the leading edge: this is what removes the squeal at the end of a stop. Finally set the gap to 1 to 1.5 mm from the rim on each side, using the barrel adjuster on the brake lever.

Wear and maintenance

Most pads carry wear grooves: once they disappear, replace them. Also inspect the surface, where small flakes of aluminium torn from the rim become embedded; they score the braking surface and make the brake grind. A pass with a knife blade to lift them out and a light flat sanding are enough to restore bite. On a bike ridden all year, budget one set of pads per season, more on sandy tracks.

The brands

Promax offers simple, well-balanced pads in both threaded and smooth post. Box Components focuses on machined holders and their replacement inserts. Insight is a common fit on the smaller categories. Shimano and Elevn round out the range with high-performance compounds.

The BMX RACING advice

Tell us the material and width of your wheels along with your caliper model, and we will point you to the right compound and the right post type. Always keep a spare set of pads in the race bag. Dispatched within 24 to 72 hours, you can spread the cost over 2 or 3 payments.