On my ride today I had a steep, winding descent of close to 500 feet. I found I had to ride my brakes for a fair amount of the descent to make the turns without flying over the edge of the road. I’m sure with practice I’ll be able to get by with less braking, but I can’t see just flying down w/o any braking. By the end I could definitely smell some burning rubber.
My question is, how much can brake pads take before they melt, lose effectiveness, etc…? FYI, I ride with alu rims (no carbon nonsense). Are there pads out there that are better suited than others to this type of riding?
It depends upon a combination of factors. Rim braking surface treatment, brake pad type, and tire type. If possible you want brake pads that do not get contaminated with rim material, supposedly Kool stop was pretty good at this. Five hundred feet doesn’t seem enough to cause overheating. Try carefully touching the rim once at the bottom next time to gauge how hot the rims got. Also verify that your brake pads are not wearing so much that the calipers are forcing them into your tires.
Lots of folks out here (Colorado) regularly do steep descents of several thousand feet (4000+) without failure. Rather than riding your breaks, try to break harder when you need to (both breaks) and try to maximise the amount of time that you’re not breaking in between to let them breathe.
Just make sure you get the right composite for your wheel braking surface. I smoked a pair of pads on one ride coming down a mountain from 6,000 feet. Wrong pads on carbon braking surface. Carbon eats brake pads.
Try feathering your brakes to scrub speed while sitting upright (in straight-aways but not during turns) rather than braking the whole time. I have found more control in turns this way. Braking the entire way is a bit more un-nerving for me opposed to letting it hang a bit. I have ridden the brakes b4 but never really noticed the smell of burning rubber. You also don’t ride the brakes on very long decents (probably not an issue at 500 ft) because excess braking can heat up the alu braking surface and pop clincher tubes under extreme conditions. Work on feathering the brakes, opening up your body to reduce speed, and properly distributing weight in turns etc. I’m no expert but practicing these things amongst others have helped me. Take a look at this link http://www.bikeforums.net/archive/index.php/t-60183, I found it quite helpful especially the comments from the posters ‘Hitchy’ & ‘SSP’. Try not to overthink it for now. With practice it will definitely become more natural.
BTW, my stock pads wore out pretty quickly and switched to Dura-ace on recommendation from the LBS and they continue to work very well for me on wheels with alu braking surfaces.