Description
Shimano 2 piston finned pads utilize the additional material to radiate heat away from the pad designed to improve pad life and reduce brake fade.
Shimano J04C Metal Pad with Fins
UPC: 689228919600
PRODUCT CODE:Â Y8LW98030
Metal pads are rated for high stopping power.
Shimano J03A Resin Pad with Fins
UPC:Â 192790452371
PRODUCT CODE:Â Y8Z298010
Less noise than Metal pads
Shimano J03A and J04C Compatibility
Compatible with Shimano 2 piston brakes including:
XTR BR-M9000, XTR BR-M9020
XT BR-M8100, XT BR-8000
SLX BR-M7100, SLX BR-M7000
Deore BR-M6100, Deore BR-M6000
BR-M987, BR-M985, BR-M785, BR-M675, BR-M666, BR-M615, BR-S700, BR-RS785, BR-R785
Other Shimano 2 Piston Brake Pads
Shimano XTR M9000, XTR M9020, XT M8100, XT M8000, SLX M7100 and SLX M7000 use J03A or J04C finned pads on this page or the G03A, G03S, G04S and G04Ti non-finned options.
Shimano 2 piston pads G04ti, G04S, G03A and G03Swithout fins will work with brakes spec’d with J03A or J04C pads.
XTR 9000 and 9020 versus XTR 9100
Shimano XTR BR-M9100 brakes, lower caliper in image above, use K04ti, K04S and K03S pads. linked below.
Shimano 2 piston pads J03A or J04C with fins will work with most brakes spec’d with G04ti, G04S, G03A and G03S pads.
Do You Need To Replace Your Rotors As Well?
The nature of brake pad and rotor interface means they will wear together. Ideally you will be able to replace your brake pads a few times before you need to replace your rotors. however there can be some conditions that make it necessary to replace the rotors sooner. Let’s look at a few.
Rotor Wear:
The easiest thing to check is the rotor wear limit.
A Magura rotor that is less than 1.8mm wide is considered worn. SRAM rotors less than 1.5mm are worn. Shimano rotors less than 1.5mm or if any of the aluminum “Ice-Tech” material appears are considered worn.
Running too thin of a rotor will compromise brake bite as well as heat capacity. In extreme cases it can lead to rotor separation which will cause damage and potentially severe injury.
Rotor Shape:
If the previous pads have worn shapes into the rotor your performance will be compromised. Whether the rotor shows knife edge, bulge or convex anything but parallel surfaces will cause contact patch issues.
These issues will create extreme “hot-spots” on the new brake pads which, in some conditions, can super heat the pad – glazing it and compromising the friction coefficient (bite, power, heat capacity are all effected).
We have seen cases where new brake pads become unusable due to this severe heat modifying the pad’s makeup glazing not just the contact surfaces but essentially glazing the entire pad material.
A rule of thumb is rotors should be replaced about every three or four sets of pads. It will pay dividends to check the rotor’s condition before installing new pads!
